TWO Parents have been blasted as “stupid” after a court heard that their young child had been hospitalised by a drug-induced cake.
The 18-month-old baby girl, who is now said to have recovered, was rushed to the Leicester Royal Infirmary after finding and eating the cake laced with cannabis in the family home last year.
Prosecutor Caroline Bradley said the mother had initially told medical staff that the child had eaten the cannabis cake after it had been brought round by a visitor without her knowledge.
However, she later confessed to having baked it herself, theorising that the child must have found it in the fridge.
Leicester Crown Court then heard how the little girl soon tested positive for the class b drug after suffering from stomach pains in hospital.
At the time, staff could not find enough evidence to prove that the cake has caused the little girls pains as she was soon returned home.
But, as it later transpired, police then searched the couple’s house the next day, where their other children were also living, and found five clear plastic bags containing cannabis, worth £670, in an airing cupboard being used as a wardrobe.
The father w told the officers he only smoked cannabis outdoors and kept it on a top shelf in the cupboard, out of reach of the youngsters.
Yet offending text messages on his phone revealed he had offered to sell different strains of cannabis to others, including a boast of having a top quality batch worth double the usual price.
The mother, when questioned, also admitted using cannabis butter as an ingredient in the cake.
She claimed to have fallen asleep before the child consumed some of the cake – which social services later deemed an “unfortunate incident.”
You were so stupid
Judge Keith Raynor
But today, both parents, in their mid-20s, faced prosecution after admitting one offence of child cruelty, by exposing their daughter to physical danger in a manner likely to cause suffering or injury to health, last summer.
The father admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply, whole the mother admitted possessing the same class B drug.
Judge Keith Raynor said of the child’s drug dealing father: “He’s the primary source of the cannabis that led to the cake, which led to the cruelty charge, although the mother had a part in the making of the cake.”
Sentencing, he told the defendants: “You were so stupid to make a cannabis cake without considering what was going to happen to the cake if the child came across it.
“You unlawfully exposed her to physical danger by leaving it in a place where it could be eaten.”
The judge added that he accepted the cruelty offence was “very much at the lower end” involving negligence.
The mother was placed on a 12 month community order, while the father received a 12 month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months.
As a condition of their sentence, both have been told to remain at their present address.
Source: The Sun
