A three-year-old toddler from London died from a heart attack after accidentally consuming cocaine “carelessly” brought home by her drug dealer father.
The girl, whom cannot be identified for legal reasons and only referred to as “K”, was admitted to the hospital with suspected sepsis or meningitis, but collapsed and died on April 6 last year.
However, the post-mortem and toxicology results showed that K had died from cardiac arrest, and found cocaine in the child’s bloodstream.
High Court Judge Justice Williams has now ruled that K’s dad brought home the illegal Class-A substance “in connection with his drug-related activities.”
“If ever there was a lesson of the perils of drug misuse, this provides it,” the judge said.
“Whether this family is able to learn from this tragedy remains to be seen. I hope they and others do.”
It is unclear as to how K came to ingest the drug, but the judge blamed both; the mother for being “well-aware of the father’s illegal activities, as she was using them herself and the father for “carelessly” leaving cocaine “in such a way and in such quantity as to be ingested by K.”
“It seems most probable that she turned a blind eye or persuaded herself that sufficient precautions were being taken to protect the children. This was to kid herself,” said Williams.
K’s four siblings have been taken from the couple’s care, and the parents tried to blame each other for the child’s death during the proceedings.
“For her siblings who struggled to comprehend her death, who will grow up without her and whose lives will no doubt carry with them the shadow of her death,” Williams said.
The death of the toddler led to an investigation by Scotland Yard, which resulted in six arrests last year in connection with the case.