A Little Too Comfortably Numb

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Two British parents who used their prescribed methadone to keep their infant from crying were told yesterday that only one of them will face prosecution.

Mitchell Bate, aged 22 months, was found dead at home in Rodney Street, Hartlepool, in September 2005.

Gemma Fennelly, 24, of Edinburgh Grove, had originally been accused of giving her son the drug to keep him quiet.
[...]
Fennelly admitted "allowing and/or failing to prevent" her son from swallowing a lethal dose of methadone.
Given her plea the court decided no action would be taken against the father, despite blood samples proving Mitchell's sedation was not a unique event and had been happening "regularly over a protracted period."

The case rather raises the question as to why two recovering heroin addicts, both on a prescribed heroin substitute, were allowed to remain caring for a young child.

Gemma Fennelly will be sentenced on May 3rd.

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