Hemel Hempstead mum who suffocated toddler called paramedics but ‘refused to save her’, court hears
30-year-old Shilyrand Charigwati is on trial for murder after pleading guilty to manslaughter
Last updated 23rd Apr 2025
A woman from Hemel Hempstead who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her 2-year-old daughter called emergency services but 'refused' to attempt saving her life until paramedics arrived, a court was told.
At the start of her trial yesterday (March 24), 30-year-old Shilyrand Charigwati pleaded guilty to the alternative offence of manslaughter, in the place of a count of murder.
Opening the prosecution today, John Price KC detailed the moment Charigwati dialled 112 and repeatedly refused to listen a medic's advice to go back into the bedroom in which her daughter Roselyn laid to help her breathe.
The jury was told that during the afternoon of April 14 last year, Charigwati suffocated Roselyn by placing a bag over her head at the property she lived in on Juniper Square, Hemel Hempstead.
That same afternoon, she called Roselyn's father three times, who had custody of their daughter and who was expected to pick her back up after a stay at her mother's.
The plastic bag in question was found in another bedroom, blood stained. A forensic profile extracted from the plastic bag matched Roselyn's DNA.
Upon arrival at the flat, a police officer asked Charigwati what had happened, to which she replied "I suffocated her. It was a plastic bag over the face".
When police found Rosalyn, the bag was no longer over her face and was found in the other bedroom.
The prosecution argued it had to have been removed before Charigwati called emergency services.
Charigwati told three doctors who carried out assessments on her state of mind in the months following her daughter's death, and who are expected to give evidence in this trial, that she has no memory of the killing.
The prosecution however detailed the account of a specialist nurse who carried out an initial assessment on the defendant upon her arrival at a police station following her arrest.
She said "Miss Charigwati was calm”, with no evidence of an acute mental illness, and that she looked "well kept", adding that her speech was "normal in rate, tone and volume".
Listening to the prosecution, the defendant sat at the dock, wearing a navy blue coat over a white jumper, looking ahead or down, displaying little emotion.
The trial, which is set to last approximately four weeks, continues.