A three-year-old girl tragically drowned in a bath in Abertillery, an inquest has heard.

Iris-Mae Aubrey, born on October 10, 2019, died on September 26, 2023, at a property in Montague Street, Abertillery.

Gwent Coroner’s Court heard that on the evening of September 25 Iris-Mae stayed with her grandmother Lyndsey where she had her own room. She had eaten and gone to school as normal on the morning of September 26.

At 11:30am on September 26 Iris-Mae became ill and vomited over her lunch. Her grandmother Elizabeth Aubrey picked her and took her home where she stayed with Elizabeth and her mum Chelsea.

Elizabeth left after Iris-Mae’s dad Ryan came home and she fell asleep.

At 8:15pm the three-year-old vomited again.

Ryan started running a bath while Chelsea was cleaning the floor. Chelsea then asked Ryan to disinfect the floor and Chelsea went up to the bathroom. Here she checked the temperature and depth of the bath.

Iris-Mae then asked her mum to leave, Chelsea said she always did this when she was in the bath.

Chelsea left her daughter at 8:25pm and went downstairs to get Iris a towel, pyjamas and tidy.

The court heard that the door was left wide open and there was a step to the bath.

Chelsea said she kept an ear for Iris-Mae as she normally would call when she was finished.

When Chelsea went back upstairs, at approximately 8:50pm, she found Iris-Mae on her side floating under the water, the bath was full, and the tap was running.

The police received an emergency call at 8:55pm and paramedics arrived at the scene at 9pm where they found Chelsea carrying out CPR.

Iris-Mae’s death was confirmed at 9:41pm.

The post-mortem results establish that Iris-Mae died in the bath by drowning and the three-year-old had turned on the taps but the exact circumstance of this is unknown.

Senior coroner for Gwent Caroline Saunders concluded that Iris-Mae’s death was an accident and her parents failed in their duty of care as the little girl was unwell and should not have been left alone.

Ms Saunders said this was a "terrible event which will never leave" the family.