Junkie mum who smoked crack from son's inhaler jailed for 20 years over his death
28 April 2022, 11:37 | Updated: 29 April 2022, 07:37
A heroin addict whose seven-year-old son died "gasping for air" after she used his inhalers to smoke crack cocaine has been jailed for 20 years.
Laura Heath, 40, has been jailed at Coventry Crown Court for gross negligence manslaughter after her son Hakeem Hussain was found dead in Nechells, Birmingham, in 2017.
The "friendly and polite" schoolboy, who suffered from severe asthma, died alone in a garden without his inhalers, Coventry Crown Court heard.
Hakeem died of a "needless" asthma attack after Heath used his inhalers to smoke crack cocaine.
Passing sentence on Laura Heath, Mr Justice Dove said the death of Hakeem was the result of her "catastrophic and deplorable" parenting.
She was ordered to serve two-thirds of her sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
The judge said: "When Hakeem Hussain died in the early hours of the morning he was only seven years old.
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"It is clear that in his tragically short life he had been an inspiration of happiness and affection for people who knew him.
"All of that potential for a wonderful and fulfilling life was cut short, extinguished as he collapsed on his own suffocating, clutching a leaf in the garden.
"The truth is that Hakeem died as a result of your deplorable negligence. You had allowed your life to be completely overtaken by your addiction to heroin and cocaine. His death was needless, tragic and a result of your abject failure as his mother."
Heath admitted child cruelty and was convicted last week of gross negligence manslaughter after "frail" Hakeem died "gasping for air" at the home of a friend where she had been staying.
On November 26, 2017, the day of Hakeem's death, officers responded to reports of a cardiac arrest at the address.
Heath told officers Hakeem had gone outside for some fresh air and fell asleep.
Tragically nothing could be done to save him, and a post-mortem concluded he died of acute exacerbation of asthma.
A trial at Coventry Crown Court was told a school nurse had warned at a child protection conference that Hakeem "could die at the weekend" just two days before his death.
Hakeem, who had been admitted to hospital due to asthma three times in the previous two years, is believed to have gone outside on his own as Heath deliberately "prioritised" her addiction to heroin and crack cocaine, leaving him without an inhaler.
He was found dead at 7.35am.
Heath later told police she had smoked three bags of heroin - two before Hakeem went to bed at 10.30pm and one afterwards, leaving her in a drug-induced sleep.
Toxicology evidence put before the court proved Hakeem had inhaled tobacco smoke in the hours before his death, having also been exposed to heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis through second-hand smoke.
