A young child was left distraught after finding her heroin addict parents unresponsive in her family home, a court has heard.
The girl contacted her grandparents after discovering the couple on the floor of the bathroom in January last year, and was said to be “distraught” and crying during the call, after she thought they were “asleep”, but couldn’t wake them up.
Police attending the home in Swansea found used needles and drugs paraphernalia on the floor, and said the parents appeared not to know where their daughter was. The couple, who cannot be named to protect the child’s identity, were arrested on suspicion of child neglect.
The girl, who is of primary school age, was made the subject of an interim care order, and no longer lives with her parents.
Swansea Crown Court heard the parents, aged in their 30s and 40s, made a daily routine of injecting heroin after putting their daughter to bed, with both being addicted to the drug for 20 years. The mother told police her reason for using it was because “I like getting off my head”, not due to any trauma or past experiences.
Caitlin Brazel, prosecuting, said the girl found her parents unconscious on the bathroom floor, and could not get them to respond. The court heard she rang her grandparents in a “distraught” state, and was told to go to a neighbour’s house while they came to help her.
While the child’s grandmother went to her, the grandfather found the girl’s mother in bed “talking incoherently and slurring her words”, and was reportedly “unconcerned at her daughter’s welfare”. The dad was found intoxicated amongst used drugs paraphernalia, and claimed he must have food poisoning. The grandparents took the girl home with them and contacted police.
By the time officers arrived, the mother was completely unaware where her daughter was, and said she must have used a bad batch of heroin. An ambulance was called for the father, who had lost consciousness again. The prosecutor said a search of the house found a large quantity of needles, other drugs paraphernalia and 100 bottles of the heroin substitute methadone. Both parents were arrested on suspicion of child neglect.
When police interviewed the mother, she said the couple used heroin daily, funding the habit through her husband’s benefits and payment from cash-in-hand jobs. She claimed her drug use did not impact her ability to look after her child, Wales Online reports.
In his interview, the father claimed to have taken medication which made him drowsy, and threw accusations that his young daughter “always blows things out of proportion”. He revealed that social services had advised both of them not to take heroin at the same time.
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When the couple appeared in court for sentencing, they both previously pled guilty to ill-treating or neglecting a child. The father has three previous convictions for five offences including possession of heroin with intent to supply, and the mother has four previous convictions for six offences including attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm and supplying heroin.
Regan Walters, for the male defendant, said his client had said he was “deeply upset” at the distress he had caused his daughter, and was ashamed at the state his daughter had found him in. The barrister said heroin addiction had plagued much of the defendant’s adult life but said he had proved he could stay “clean” having stayed away from drugs for four years during which time he worked as a mechanic before his father died in 2014 and said he was “simply unable to cope”.
Harry Dickens, for the female defendant, said on the day in question his client had been intoxicated through alcohol instead of heroin. He said they were his instructions that his client would take heroin in the mornings to “set herself up for the day” as the drug had a “stimulating effect in her”.
Judge Geraint Walters described the facts of the case as “disturbing” and said on the day in question the couple’s young daughter had found them “drugged-up or drunk to the extreme” on the floor.
He told the couple: “Nobody, long-term, survives the effects of a heroin addiction. Ultimately there is only one outcome – declining health and an early death.” He said in reality the most severe punishment the couple could receive had already been given to them with their daughter being taken into care.
He told them the chances of them regaining custody of their daughter were “slim” but said that was the price they would pay for abusing the trust a child has a right to expect in its parents.
Both parents received 12 month prison sentences suspended for two years, discounted due to their guilty pleas, and an order to complete rehabilitation courses. The female defendant is also to complete 100 hours of unpaid community work, with the male defendant unfit to work due to his health.
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