A young girl was left ‘distraught’ when she found her heroin-addict parents lying unconscious on the bathroom floor of their Swansea home, a court heard.
The child, who has since been taken into care, frantically tried to ‘wake’ her parents but with no success.
This is when she called her grandparents in tears in a heartbreaking moment where she told them she thought they were ‘asleep’ but was not able to wake them up.
Swansea Crown Court heard that the parents made it a daily routine to inject heroin after putting their daughter to bed. When officers attended the house, they found used heroin needles and drug paraphernalia scattered across the floor.
The mother told officers they must have had a ‘bad batch’ of heroin, while the girl’s father said in his police interview that his daughter ‘always blows things out of proportion’.
The girl, who is of primary school age, was advised by her grandparents to go to a neighbour’s house when she called them in a state of distress. They stayed on call with their granddaughter as they rushed to get to her.
Once they arrived, the grandmother looked after the schoolgirl, while the grandfather went to the family home.
There, he found the girl’s mum in bed ‘talking incoherently and slurring her words’, Swansea Crown Court heard. She was also said to have been ‘unconcerned for her daughter’s welfare’.
A ‘distraught’ young girl thought her heroin-addict parents were ‘asleep’ when she found them lying unconscious on the bathroom floor, a court heard. Pictured: Swansea Crown Court
Meanwhile, the father was found intoxicated in the bathroom. When pressed by the grandfather, he claimed he must have eaten something that had poisoned him.
The grandfather than took the girl to his home and called the police, WalesOnline reported.
When authorities turned up at the parents’ home, the mother was unaware of her daughter’s whereabouts, telling them that she was upstairs when in fact her grandparents had taken her away.
An ambulance was called for the dad who was found unresponsive. The mother claimed to officers that it must have been a ‘bad batch’ of heroin.
The court heard that both parents, aged in their 30s and 40s, have been heroin addicts for 20 years, with the mum telling officers her drug abuse was not the result of childhood trauma or bad experiences, but purely because she liked ‘getting off her head’.
She admitted that it was part of their daily routine to take heroin after their daughter had gone to sleep, and claimed her addiction did not affect her ability to look after her child. She also said the addiction was funded by her husband’s benefits and some money she earned from cash-in-hand jobs.
Caitlin Brazel, prosecuting, told the court that a large amount of needles, other drugs paraphernalia and 100 bottles of methadone – a heroin substitute medication – were found during a search of the property.
The pair were arrested on suspicion of child neglect. The child no longer lives with her parents, having been removed from the home under an interim care order.
In his interview, the father said he had taken medication which left him drowsy and accused his daughter of ‘always blowing things out of proportion’. He also claimed that social services had advised them not to take heroin at the same time.
The couple were said to have been heroin addicts for 20 years. When officers turned up at the house, the mother said the pair must have had a ‘bad batch’ of heroin
The couple were handed a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years, having already pleaded guilty to ill-treating or neglecting a child.
Both defendants have previous convictions: the father having three for five offences which included the possession of heroin with intent to supply, while the mother has four previous convictions for six offences which include causing grievous bodily harm.
Regan Walters, representing the girl’s father, said his client was ‘deeply upset’ and ashamed at the state he was found in and the distress it caused the young girl.
The court heard that heroin addiction had affected much of the man’s adult life, but that there was a four-year period up to 2014 when his dad died that he proved he could go ‘clean’.
Harry Dickens, for the mother, told the court that she had been drunk rather than on heroin on the day that police attended the house. He also told the court they were his instructions that the woman would take heroin in the mornings as it had a ‘stimulating effect on her’ and would help ‘set herself up for the day’.
Slamming the details of the case as ‘disturbing’, Judge Geraint Walters told of how the young girl had found her parents ‘drugged-up or drunk to the extreme’.
He said: ‘Nobody, long-term, survives the effects of a heroin addiction. Ultimately there is only one outcome – declining health and an early death.’
The daughter has been taken into care, and the judge told the parents that the likelihood of them ever getting their daughter back was ‘slim’.
The pair were ordered to complete rehabilitation courses, with the mum also given 100 hours of unpaid work.