A mother has been jailed for manslaughter after her baby son drowned in the bath while she texted a friend in another room.

Simone Perry, 27, called 999 after finding five-month-old Renzo unconscious but denied having been on her phone in a follow-up interview with child protection officers.

Judge Adrienne Lucking accused Perry of deliberately misleading the investigation into her son’s death as she sentenced her to 22 months in prison for manslaughter by gross negligence.

Perry left the bathroom for four minutes, during which she sent a WhatsApp message to a friend and made a phone call, Northampton Crown Court heard.

Renzo slipped off a bath seat which police said was ‘never a substitute for adult supervision’.

Judge Lucking told Perry on Friday: ‘On discovering Renzo, you immediately called the emergency services and tried to resuscitate Renzo.

‘When the paramedics arrived you told them that you had left your baby for about four minutes… and it was your fault.

‘Subsequently you gave an account of events to a number of doctors but you omitted to tell them about using the phone.

‘I am sure that was because you knew you had allowed yourself to be avoidably distracted.’

The court heard how Perry initially denied using her phone in a police interview.

Her defence barrister urged the judge to pass a non-custodial sentence, saying a psychologist had found ‘significant problems’ with Perry who had suffered a ‘lapse’ in what was otherwise a satisfactory standard of care.

David Nathan added: ‘In a sense she is the victim in this case. I appreciate she caused this child’s death but she will live with this for the rest of her life.

‘You know this is not a callous young woman. This is a someone who cares very deeply what happened… a woman who feels remorse for what happened to her child. She will bear the loss as much as anybody else in the years to come.’

Judge Lucking rejected the plea, telling Perry: ‘I am satisfied that you remain in denial of your responsibility for your son’s death and your lies were in part a reflection of the fact that you have not yet accepted that you are responsible for the death of your baby.

‘This is an extremely serious offence resulting in the death of a baby and the consequences were completely avoidable.

‘In my judgment, tragic though your situation is, I would be failing in my public duty if I did not impose an immediate custodial sentence.

‘Babies and young children are at serious risk of death or grave injury if left unsupervised in a bath, and even more so if their carer is avoidably distracted.’

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