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07/06/2007
Man jailed for baby's drug death
A drug addict who killed his three-month-old son by giving him methadone has been jailed for ten years.
Nathan Grain, from Shepshed, Leicestershire, gave his son Luke the heroin substitute, as well as diazepam, while looking after the child in January last year.
He had claimed that the drugs had been passed to the child accidentally when he transferred a dummy from his mouth to his son's.
However, a post-mortem found 277 nanongrams of methadone in the baby's blood and experts said that anything between 110 and 489 nanograms was enough to kill a child.
Grain had denied killing the child, insisting that the lethal doses of the drug must have been administered by someone else.
However, his claims were rejected at Leicester Crown Court and he was found guilty of manslaughter.
At sentencing on Thursday, Judge Michael Pert QC said: "You showed a repeated and reckless indifference to the safety of your tiny baby."
Judge Pert also said that Grain would have to serve a minimum of five years in prison.
Defending, Lynne Tayton QC said that her client was remorseful and had found it difficult to deal with the death of his only child.
(KMcA/JM)
Nathan Grain, from Shepshed, Leicestershire, gave his son Luke the heroin substitute, as well as diazepam, while looking after the child in January last year.
He had claimed that the drugs had been passed to the child accidentally when he transferred a dummy from his mouth to his son's.
However, a post-mortem found 277 nanongrams of methadone in the baby's blood and experts said that anything between 110 and 489 nanograms was enough to kill a child.
Grain had denied killing the child, insisting that the lethal doses of the drug must have been administered by someone else.
However, his claims were rejected at Leicester Crown Court and he was found guilty of manslaughter.
At sentencing on Thursday, Judge Michael Pert QC said: "You showed a repeated and reckless indifference to the safety of your tiny baby."
Judge Pert also said that Grain would have to serve a minimum of five years in prison.
Defending, Lynne Tayton QC said that her client was remorseful and had found it difficult to deal with the death of his only child.
(KMcA/JM)
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