Addict Mother Admits Giving Baby Fatal Dose Of Methadone
A heroin addict accused of trying to quieten her baby by giving him methadone admitted the child’s manslaughter at a court hearing yesterday.
{mosimage}Gemma Fennelly, 24, changed her plea on the day her retrial over the tragedy in Hartlepool two years ago was due to start, after earlier proceedings were stopped to allow forensic tests on fresh scientific evidence for the defence. She was released on bail by a judge at Teesside crown court, to return for sentencing at the beginning of May for “allowing and/or failing through gross negligence to prevent” 22-month-old Mitchell Bate from taking a lethal dose of the drug.
The child died in September 2005 after collapsing from enough methadone to kill an adult, allegedly built up by successive doses.
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