Drug addict mum who let asthma-suffering son die jailed for 20 years
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A drug addict mum who was convicted of fatally neglecting her asthma-suffering seven-year-old son after he died alone and “gasping for air” in a garden has been jailed for 20 years
Laura Heath was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter having already admitted four counts of child cruelty, in connection with the 2017 death of her son seven-year-old Hakeem Hussain, at a house in Cook Lane, Birmingham.
Today at Coventry Crown Court the 40-year-old was given a sentence of 20 years.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Dove confirmed the punishment is uplifted above the normal bracket for gross negligence manslaughter to take into account of the 'totality' of the offences, including the child cruelty charges.
At Heath's trial earlier this year, it was established that she had “prioritised her addiction to heroin and crack cocaine” prior to the “needless, premature” death of Hakeem Hussain from an asthma attack on Sunday November 26 2017, prosecutors said.
An image seen by jurors during the trial showed how Heath had even used foil and an elastic band to rig one of her son’s blue inhalers to smoke crack, fuelling a £55-a-day habit.
The 40-year-old had admitted four counts of child cruelty before trial, including failing to provide proper medical supervision and exposing Hakeem to class A drugs.
Social services in Birmingham were aware of Hakeem before his death, and it emerged at Heath’s trial that at a child protection conference on November 24, 2017, just two days before his fatal collapse, a school nurse told the meeting “he could die at the weekend”.
Passing sentence on Laura Heath, Mr Justice Dove said the death of Hakeem Hussain in November 2017 was the result of her “catastrophic and deplorable” parenting.
The judge told 40-year-old Heath, who was ordered to serve two-thirds of her sentence before becoming eligible for parole, that the death had occurred after her life “entered a drug-fuelled downward spiral into squalor, chaos and tragedy”.
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The judge said: “When Hakeem Hussain died in the early hours of the morning he was only seven years old.
“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.”
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