A drug addict whose seven-year-old son died alone from a needless asthma attack after she used his inhalers to smoke crack cocaine has been jailed for 20 years. Laura Heath admitted child cruelty and was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter last week after jurors heard how Hakeem Hussain was found dead in a garden in Nechells, Birmingham.
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 in the early hours of Sunday November 26, 2017. 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.
Heath, formerly of Long Acre, Nechells, was staying over at a friend’s flat when Hakeem was found dead at 7.37am. She 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.
