A TODDLER diced with death standing at the edge of roof while the woman who was looking after him neglected him to sunbathe.
The two-year-old boy peered over the 12ft drop for more than 15 seconds while the woman ignored him and carried on kissing her neighbour Paul Mitchell.
Mitchell – who was drunk – was charged with endangering the child’s life by swinging him over the edge of the building.
Perth Sheriff Court was told that Katherine Reeves was looking after the toddler when she clambered over a metre-high railing to gain access to the roof space.
She then got her friends, who were already on the roof, to help her up with the child before she lay down and began to focus on topping up her tan. The court was told that horrified neighbours who overlooked the property saw the child wandering around before perching on the edge over a sheer drop to the ground.
Fiscal depute John Malpass said: “All four adults had to climb over the railing and, while doing that, the two-year-old child was handed over the railings.”
When she was quizzed by police, Reeves admitted she had let the toddler run about unsupervised on the roof.
Reeves, 23, of Rannoch Road, Perth, admitted that on May 11, 2016, she wilfully neglected the boy in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health by allowing him to play on a rooftop with no perimeter protection, and causing him to stand at the edge of the roof with no intervention.
Reeves told police: “It was a stupid mistake.”
Sheriff Gillian Wade deferred sentence for reports.
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