Distraught little girl found heroin-addict parents unresponsive on the

A distraught young girl rang her grandparents after finding her drunk and drugged-up parents laying unresponsive on the floor of the bathroom, a court has heard. When police arrived on the scene they found used heroin needles and other drugs paraphernalia strewn on the floor, and parents seemingly unaware of where their daughter was.

Swansea Crown Court heard it was the parents’ daily routine to put their little girl to bed and then inject heroin. The court heard both parents have been heroin addicts for 20 years but the mum told officers she didn’t use the drug because of any bad childhood experiencers or other trauma but because “I like getting off my head”. The primary school aged child has now been made the subject of an interim care order and no longer lives with the the defendants, who are aged in the 30s and 40s.

Caitlin Brazel, prosecuting, said in January last year a girl found her parents unconscious on the bathroom floor of their Swansea home and tried to rouse them but with no success. The child rang her grandparents to say mum and dad were “asleep” and she couldn’t wake them up. The court heard the girl was “distraught” and in tears during the call. The grandparents told the girl to go to a neighbour’s house and they stayed on the call to talk to the youngster as they made their way to her.

The prosecutor said while the grandmother went to her granddaughter, the grandfather went to the family home where he found the girl’s mum in bed “talking incoherently and slurring her words”. Miss Brazel said the mum “did not know what was going on and appeared unconcerned at her daughter’s welfare”. The grandfather found the dad in the bathroom amidst used needles and other drugs paraphernalia. When challenged the intoxicated dad said he must have eaten something that had poisoned him. The grandparents took their granddaughter home and called the police.

The court heard that when officers arrived and spoke to the parents the mum said her daughter was upstairs, seemingly completely unaware that her daughter had gone to stay with the grandparents. She also told officers it must have been a bad batch of heroin. The dad was found unresponsive and an ambulance was called for him. The prosecutor said a search of the house uncovered a large quantity of needles scattered around along with drugs paraphernalia and 100 bottles of the heroin substitute medication methadone. The parents – who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child – were arrested on suspicion of child neglect.

In her interview the mum said the couple had been heroin addicts for 20 years and used the drug daily, funding their habit though her husband’s benefits and the money she received from doing cash-in-hand jobs. She said she didn’t take the drug because she’d had a bad childhood but because “I like getting off my head”. She said the couple’s daily routine was to put their daughter to bed then take heroin, and she said the use of the drug did not affect her ability to look after her daughter. In his interview the father said he had taken medication which had made him drowsy and he said his young daughter “always blows things out of proportion”. He said social services had advised the couple not to both take heroin at the same time.

The couple had both previously pleaded guilty to ill-treating or neglecting a child when they appeared in the dock for sentencing. The father has three previous convictions for five offences including possession of heroin with intent to supply, and the mother has four previous convictions for six offences including attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm and supplying heroin. For the latest court reports, sign up to our crime newsletter here

Regan Walters, for the male defendant, said his client had told him he was “deeply upset” at the distress he had caused his daughter and he said his client was ashamed at being found in the condition he had been on the day in question. The barrister said heroin addiction had plagued much of the defendant’s adult life but said he had demonstrated he was capable of tackling the issue having been “clean” for a period of four years during which time to found work as a mechanic before his father died in 2014 and he found himself “simply unable to cope”.

Harry Dickens, for the female defendant, said on the day in question his client had been intoxicated through alcohol rather than heroin. He said they were his instructions that his client would take heroin in the mornings to “set herself up for the day” as the drug had a “stimulating effect in her”.

Judge Geraint Walters described the facts of the case as “disturbing” and said on the day in question the couple’s young daughter had found them “drugged-up or drunk to the extreme” on the floor. He told the couple: “Nobody, long-term, survives the effects of a heroin addiction. Ultimately there is only one outcome – declining health and an early death.” He said in reality the greatest punishment the couple could receive had already been handed down to them with a care order having been made in respect of their daughter. He told them the chances of them ever having their daughter back were “slim” but said that was the price you pay for abusing the trust a child has a right to expect in its parents.

With discounts for their guilty pleas the couple were each sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for two years and were ordered to complete rehabilitation courses. The female defendant was also ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work in the community. The male defendant is unfit to carry out work due to health issues.

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