Woman jailed for giving baby methadone dummy

08 June 2010 16:22 GMT

A ten-week-old baby nearly died after being given a dummy dipped in the heroin substitute methadone to stop him crying.

Susan Taylor, 29, gave the baby a dummy she had rolled around in a measuring cup used for the drug in November 2008.

Only when the boy’s face and body turned grey did Taylor and her partner Lynn Cowan take him to hospital, where the pair neglected to tell staff that he had ingested the drug.

Doctors only discovered the truth two days later, when urine tests revealed potentially fatal levels of methadone.

Taylor was jailed for three years last September for culpably and recklessly causing the baby to ingest methadone. Yesterday Cowan, 28, was sentenced to ten months for her failure to inform medics.

Fiscal depute John Kirk told Edinburgh Sheriff Court how the couple were watching TV in their flat in Edinburgh's Leith area when Cowan noticed the boy had stopped breathing.

He said: "At 7pm he was placed in a Moses basket and at 8.30pm Cowan realised she couldn't hear the baby breathing.

"On picking him up she noticed his lips were blue and his face and body were grey. She dialled 999 and was given instructions until paramedics arrived.

"They noted that Cowan was extremely distressed and upset whilst Susan Taylor seemed disinterested and was showing no emotion, which they found strange."

Fortunate to recover

The boy had to be resuscitated twice after passing out en route to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh. He was placed in an incubator and was "fortunate" to make a recovery, according to Mr Kirk.

He said: "At some point on the journey to the hospital, Taylor told Cowan that she had dipped the baby's dummy in her methadone.

"But it was only when samples were returned two days later that medical staff got the first indication that the child had ingested methadone.

"The analysis shows the quantity was not insubstantial and was of a concentration that could have proved fatal.

"Fortunately the baby survived."

He added that Cowan had "an all too familiar depressing catalogue of previous convictions for someone with drug addiction problems."

Taylor and Cowan have now ended their relationship, according to defence agent Peter Winning.

He said: "The child had been at the doctor the day before and got a check and some jags.

"He was thriving and well cared for. Cowan's position is that only once treatment had begun at the hospital was she informed by her former partner as to what she had done.

"Due to a misguided sense of loyalty to her partner she didn't pass that information on to the medical staff.

"It is something she is always going to find difficult to come to terms with."

Sending Cowan to prison for 10 months, Sheriff Alistair Noble said she failed in her "duty to tell doctors".

He said: "Happily it appears the child has recovered.

"Nevertheless, you were not aware of what might happen to the child and, knowing the child had ingested methadone, it was plainly your duty to tell doctors of that immediately."

Taylor confessed to police ahead of the High Court case last year.

Prosecutor Morag Jack said: "The baby was crying for his feed and she thought it would calm him down. She didn't think it would do any harm and the baby only sucked on it for between three and five minutes before spitting it out.

Later Taylor also admitted doing this on an earlier occasion, but Ms Jack told judge Lord Bannatyne: "There were more administrations than the accused told the police."

The judge was also told that poisons expert Professor Robin Braithwaite had prepared a report on the case.

He said methadone presented a high risk to children because it tasted sweet. As little as half a teaspoonful could prove fatal.

"Professor Braithwaite is of the opinion that without prompt medical intervention the baby would have died," said Ms Jack.

The professor also concluded that if the little boy was given a dummy dipped in methadone this would have to be done more than once or twice to build up the high dose revealed by hospital tests.

Defence advocate Susan Duff said Taylor was "distressed" when the baby cried and she was unable to settle him. She rolled the dummy round in the remains of her methadone.

"She in no way intended to cause him any harm," said the lawyer.

"She loves him. She had no concept of how dangerous feeding methadone to a young baby was."

Doctors say it is too early to know whether the boy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - will suffer any lasting effects. He is no longer in the care of either of the women, the court was told.

Social workers had visited the flat just a day before the incident on November 22, 2008 and nothing untoward was reported.

From: http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-central/181717-woman-jailed-for-giving-baby-methadone-dummy/