Kate Roughley, who last month was charged with unlawfully killing nine-month-old Genevieve Zofia Meehan in May last year, appeared at Manchester Crown Court this week.
According to local reports, Roughley pleaded not guilty to the charge. She also pleaded not guilty to an offence of child cruelty, by allegedly causing ‘unnecessary suffering or injury to health by failing to make safe sleeping arrangements for the child.’
Nursery World reported at the end of last month that an inquest into the child’s death had been opened. At the opening of the inquest, a police coroner’s officer and pathologist confirmed the cause of Genevieve’s death as a ‘combination of asphyxia and patho-physological stress, imparted by an unsafe sleep environment.’
The nursery, Tiny Toes in Cheadle, Stockport is no longer open.
Roughley has now been bailed and is due to appear at Manchester Crown Court again December, said the BBC. A pre-trial review hearing has been set for 21 December, with a trial scheduled to start on 15 April next year.