// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Mother jailed for killing baby by burning her with a hairdryer
A mother who killed her baby daughter by burning her with a hairdryer has been jailed for six years.
Courtney Gartshore, 28, used the appliance to subject three-month-old Dahlia-Rose to "significant and sustained heat" on her head and body.
Emergency services were called to the scene at a property in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, in September 2023, but the child had died.
Gartshore was convicted of culpable homicide following a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen in July.
Sentencing Gartshore at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Simon Collins KC described the case as "uniquely disturbing and distressing".
Gartshore appeared via videolink at the 25-minute hearing, during which she sobbed and wiped away tears.
The judge said Gartshore would have to live for the rest of her life knowing she was responsible for her daughter's death.
Defence counsel Murray Macara KC told the court that Gartshore had no recollection of using the hairdryer.
He said he could not provide "any reasonable or compelling reason" for its use and could only speculate that the baby had been cold and it was used to provide a sense of heat.
During her trial Gartshore's defence argued the baby may have already been dead before the burn injuries, but a jury took just over an hour to return the guilty verdict.