Woman Gets Jail Term For Son’s Drug Death

A mother whose toddler son died after repeatedly drinking the heroin substitute methadone was jailed for two years yesterday for manslaughter by gross neglect.

In spite of earning full sentencing credit for a belated guilty plea, Gemma Fennelly was told by a judge that there could be no alternative to jail because the negligence had happened again and again.

Teesside crown court heard that Fennelly, 25, was so lax that her 22-month-old son Mitchell was able to build up a lethal dose of the drug by getting at medicine bottles for five months. After he collapsed at home in Hartlepool in September 2005, he had a level of methadone in his blood that could have killed an adult.

Fennelly, a recovering heroin addict who no longer needs to rely on methadone, was in tears at a hearing last month when she unexpectedly entered a guilty plea to manslaughter. Her trial had earlier been adjourned to allow the defence to prepare “significant” new forensic evidence for the court.

Judge Peter Fox, the recorder of Middlesbrough, told her yesterday that he had considered everything which could be said on her behalf. He said: “I give you full credit for the guilty plea…but through your very great carelessness you are responsible for your infant son’s death.”

The neglect was exceptional because it had extended over months. “Had there been no repetition … I would accept your counsel’s submission of a suspended sentence,” said the judge. “But the contact was repeated and the substance was available to him again and again.”

Neil Davey QC, defending, said that social services had been involved with the family before the tragedy. But there had never been a suggestion that the quality of Mitchell’s care was so poor that the toddler might have been taken away. His father was initially charged with manslaughter but was cleared last month.