Five-month-old Aaron Egan died after he was left alone in a baby bath.
His parents, Thomas Egan and Chrystine Templeton from East Ayrshire, were charged with culpable homicide but the case was eventually dropped.
Both parents were reportedly drug addicts and an investigation has been launched to find out why their baby son (previously known as ‘Baby E’) wasn’t taken into care.
Police Scotland’s Andrew Cameron said: ‘The father was fully aware that the mother was not in the living room with the baby when he left it. The parents claimed that they had left the baby alone in the bath and when they returned he was submerged and unconscious.’
Susan Taylor from the children’s protection committee said on the case: ‘Child protection professionals will always strive to keep children safe, and where possible, families are supported to care for their children at home. In this situation, the multi-agency child protection team put in place a package of measures to help the family care for Baby E.’
‘The independent review officer recognised that the child protection team tried their level best to support the family, and noted that staff could not have anticipated that this event would happen.’
‘This significant case review has been carefully considered by the agencies involved and there has been a determined effort to understand and learn important lessons from this incident. We are committed to working together to keep children safe from harm through continuous improvements and developments in practice.’