Mum Jailed For Killing Asthmatic Son

Laura Heath, a 40-year-old heroin addict mother has been jailed for 20 years after she put her drug habit before her little boy, using the severely asthmatic son’s inhaler to smoke crack and his bed to entertain her sex worker clients before he died alone ‘gasping for air in the garden.

Gatekeepers News reports that she was sentenced on Thursday because of her ‘catastrophic and deplorable’ parenting that led to the death of neglected and abused 7-year-old Birmingham schoolboy Hakeem Hussain in November 2017.

According to reports, Hakeem begged his mother to stop doing drugs but she ignored him. His fragile and ‘freezing’ body was eventually discovered clutching a leaf outside a decrepit flat where he was staying with her and other addicts because the power and heating had been cut off in their own home. She also reportedly refused him a bed so she could use it for sex work, so he slept on the sofa.

Heath was said to have used foil and an elastic band to rig one of her son’s blue inhalers to smoke crack. The addict had a £55-a-day habit and her son was found to have inhaled tobacco smoke in the hours before his death, having also been exposed to heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis through second-hand smoke.

She was found guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of her seven-year-old son at Coventry Crown Court a week ago and was sentenced to 20 years in prison today, although must only serve a minimum of 13 years and two months.

Justice Dove told Heath as she stood impassively in the dock: “You should have followed Hakeem’s advice and stopped taking drugs. You didn’t.”

He went on: “You betrayed the trust of all children who have to place their trust in their parents to do the best for them and you catastrophically failed to act as a responsible mother.

“All of these offences were committed while you were under the influence or indeed in the thrall of drugs, in particular, heroin and crack cocaine. Your addiction no doubt led to you prioritising your drug use over almost everything else in your life.”

It was gathered that Hakeem had died less than 48 hours after social workers failed to act on a school nurse’s plea to immediately remove the boy from his mother’s care before the weekend he died because his life was in danger. The council workers refused, saying they wanted to wait until Monday instead, by which time he was dead.

Justice Dove added: “When Hakeem Hussain died he was only seven-years-old.

“It is clear in his tragically short life Hakeem had been an inspiration of happiness and affection for people who knew him.

“He was described as bubbly and full of life with brilliant communication skills.

“All of that potential for a wonderful and fulfilling life was extinguished as he collapsed on his own clutching a leaf in the garden.

“We can only imagine the pain and fear that must have blighted the end of his young life. For anyone, let alone a child, this was a shockingly terrible way for him to die.

“How could it possibly be that this could happen? The truth is, in short, is that Hakeem died as a result of your deplorable negligence.

“He died as a result of your catastrophic and deplorable parenting.

“From the early spring of 2017 your parenting of Hakeem entered a drug-fuelled downward spiral into squalor, chaos and tragedy.

“It is clear to me from the evidence that this was a truly exceptional and reprehensible breach of duty.

“Your failure to manage Hakeem’s asthma was persistent and continuous and caused him obvious distress in the day-by-day deterioration of his condition.

“This offence arises in the context of other serious criminality in the form of your abuse of heroin and cocaine and the charges of child cruelty.

“His medication regime was ignored and neglected and he was exposed at home to triggers in a dirty, smoky and cold environment.

“You fall to be sentenced in the category of very high culpability. There are aggravating features which need to be taken into account.

“The victim was a young child and moreover you were his mother. You were the person who first and foremost had a responsibility for his welfare.

“He was entitled to rely upon you as his adult caregiver, to take care of him and nurture him – especially protecting his health.”