The mother of a toddler who was found dead at a house in the Highlands has been accused of neglecting and ill-treating him from birth.
Two-year-old Clyde Campbell died in a flat in the Raigmore area of Inverness.
His former model mum Amanda Hardie appeared at the city’s sheriff court yesterday charged with neglecting him.
She denied the allegation and is due to go on trial in March.
Clyde was born on January 20, 2012 – and died on February 23, 2014.
The cause of his death is still unexplained, despite extensive tests.
It was more than a month after he died that his body was released for burial.
His death certificate recorded the cause as “sudden unexpected death in childhood”.
His 30-year-old mother denies charges which include leaving him without adult supervision at night, failing to give him enough food and fluids and not keeping him in clean clothes and nappies.
Hardie – who now stays at East Kilbride but lived at Mackintosh Road in Inverness at the time of the tragedy – is accused of wilfuly ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning and exposing him to unnecessary suffering.
She is alleged to have left him for long spells – particularly at night – unattended and without adult supervision.
She is also accused of failing to provide him with adequate food and fluids, causing him to be exposed to electrical fire and chemical hazards and allowing the flat to become dirty and strewn with domestic, human and animal waste.
It is also alleged Hardie “failed to bathe and clothe” Clyde adequately, and allowed his clothes to “become dirty and malodorous and fail to change his nappy”.
Hardie was represented in court yesterday by lawyer Neil Wilson and a further hearing was set for February 12 by Sheriff Margaret Neilson.
Trial was fixed for March 21.
It previously emerged that former model Hardie worked in an Inverness nightclub and had also helped at various fundraising events for the £2million Highland Children’s Unit Appeal to create a new children’s department at Raigmore Hospital.
She had been crowned the Face of Inverness by agency modelscotland the year before Clyde’s death after battling severe post-natal depression.
In her bid to overcome it, she had professional photographs taken, the images were uploaded by the photographer on to a social networking site and she found herself inundated with offers of modelling work.
She also modelled for the Ann Summers catalogue.
Lengthy charge
The lengthy charge against Hardie, of 26 Aikman Place, East Kilbride is under the Children and Young Persons Act.
It is alleged that between January 20, 2012 – Clyde Campbell’s date of birth – and February 23, 2014, while having parental responsibility for him, she did wilfuly ill-treat, neglect, abandon and expose him to unnecessary suffering and did leave him for prolonged periods, particularly during the hours of darkness, unattended and without adult supervision.
It is also alleged that she failed to provide adequate food and fluids, causing him to be exposed to electrical fire and chemical hazards and allow the premises to become dirty and strewn with domestic, human and animal waste.
The charge also alleges that she “failed to bathe and clothe him adequately and allow his clothing to become dirty and malodorous and fail to change his nappy so it became excessively filled with urine and faeces, contrary to the Children and Young Persons Act”.