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.
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. Passing sentence on Thursday, Mr Justice Dove told 40-year-old Heath that Hakeem’s death was the result of her “catastrophic and deplorable” parenting.
Heath’s life had “entered a drug-fuelled downward spiral into squalor, chaos and tragedy”, he said. Ruling that Heath should serve two-thirds of her sentence before being eligible for parole, the judge told her: “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. acAll 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.”
