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AAP
AAP
National
Tim Dornin

Parents googled after toddler's overdose

The parents of a toddler who swallowed a potentially fatal dose of fantasy have been jailed. (Darren England/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

A two-year-old girl swallowed a potentially deadly dose of fantasy, but her parents waited more than three hours to call an ambulance, instead searching the internet for what to do, a court has been told.

In the South Australian District Court on Tuesday, the toddler's parents were jailed after pleading guilty to criminal neglect.

The 27-year-old mother and the 29-year-old father were both daily drug users at the time of the incident in 2020.

In sentencing, Judge Joana Fuller said they lived in squalid conditions and had left drugs in places where it was only a matter of time before they were found and consumed by their two children.

On the day in question, the older girl picked up a vial and ingested fantasy.

"Both of you failed in your duty of care towards your daughter by having illicit drugs in places to which she could have access," Judge Fuller said.

"The environment in which your daughter lived was hazardous and unsafe.

"To make matters worse instead of immediately calling an ambulance or taking your daughter to the hospital one or both of you conducted internet searches on your phone."

The judge said by the time an ambulance was called the young girl was in a "perilous condition". She was unconscious, unresponsive and had vomited a few times.

But in the triple-zero call, her mother lied to the operator, indicating they did not know what their daughter had consumed and blamed the previous "druggo" occupant of the house who could have left something behind.

Judge Fuller said miraculously the young girl made a full recovery despite, on expert evidence, consuming a very large dose of fantasy, in excess of what could be expected to kill an adult.

She jailed the father for almost three years with a non-parole period of 19 months and the girl's mother for three years and nine months with a non-parole period of 22 months.

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