A distraught schoolgirl who found her parents passed out from drugs and alcohol on the bathroom floor made a panicked call to her grandparents to say mum and dad were “asleep”, a court has heard.
The primary school aged child was in a state of distress and wept as she told the pair she couldn’t wake her mum and dad up. When police arrived at the property, they discovered used heroin needles and other drugs paraphernalia strewn across the floor, while the couple appeared to be unaware of their daughter’s whereabouts.
Swansea Crown Court heard it was the parents’ daily routine to put their little girl to bed before injecting themselves with heroin. Both had been heroin addicts for 20 years, with the mum telling officers she used the drug because “I like getting off my head”, WalesOnline reports.
The child, who made the desperate call in January last year, has now been made the subject of an interim care order and no longer lives with the defendants, who are aged in their 30s and 40s.
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Both had been heroin addicts for 20 years, Swansea Crown Court heard (file)
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Caitlin Brazel, prosecuting, explained that while the grandmother went to her granddaughter, the grandfather went to the family home, where the girl’s mum was in bed “talking incoherently and slurring her words”. Miss Brazel said the mum “did not know what was going on and appeared unconcerned at her daughter’s welfare”.
The dad, who was found in the bathroom surrounded by used needles and other drugs paraphernalia, claimed he must have eaten something that poisoned him when confronted. The grandparents then took the girl home and called the police.
The court heard that when officers arrived and spoke to the parents, the mum told them her daughter was upstairs – seemingly completely unaware that she gone to stay with the grandparents that night. A search of the house uncovered an array of needles scattered around, drugs paraphernalia and 100 bottles of the heroin substitute medication methadone.
The parents – who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child – were arrested on suspicion of child neglect. In her police interview, the mum said the couple funded their drug habits though her husband’s benefits and money she received from odd cash-in-hand jobs. She said the couple’s daily routine was to put their daughter to bed, then take heroin – but that the drug did not affect her ability to look after her daughter.
The father said he had taken medication which had made him drowsy and that his young daughter “always blows things out of proportion”. He added social services had advised the couple not to both take heroin at the same time.
The dad was found in the bathroom surrounded by used needles (stock)
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The couple had both previously pleaded guilty to ill-treating or neglecting a child when they appeared in the dock for sentencing. 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, defending the father, said his client had told him he was “deeply upset” at the distress he had caused his daughter and ashamed for the state in which he was found. The barrister said heroin addiction had plagued much of the defendant’s adult life but said he had demonstrated he was capable of tackling the issue having been “clean” for a period of four years, where he worked as a mechanic before his father died in 2014 and he found himself “simply unable to cope”. Harry Dickens, defending the mum, said his client had been drunk from alcohol, and not high on drugs. 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 added that the chances of them getting their daughter back were “slim” but said that was the price you pay for abusing the trust a child has a right to expect in its parents.
The pair were each sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for two years and were ordered to complete rehabilitation courses. The mum was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work in the community. The dad was deemed unfit to carry out work due to health issues.