Heroin addict 'gave his baby son a deadly drug overdose'

Mother: Lisa Williamson

Father: Nathan Grain showed 'reckless stupidity'

A drug addict killed his baby son when he fed him a heroin substitute and a tranquilliser to stop him crying, a court heard today.

Nathan Grain gave threemonthold Luke fatal doses of methadone and diazepam as he looked after the boy at their home, it was alleged.

Nigel Rumfitt QC, prosecuting, told a jury that Luke died as a result of Grain's "reckless stupidity".

Grain, 34, who was on a methadone recovery programme to combat his heroin addiction, denies manslaughter.

"In order to stop the child crying, or in a misguided attempt to relieve the pain of teething, we say this defendant gave the child some of his own adult drugs," said Mr Rumfitt.

"As you would expect with drugs like that in his system, the baby died. This is not an allegation of murder.

"We are not saying this defendant wanted to kill or even wanted to harm his baby, but it's against the law to give drugs that are prescribed to you to another person and anyone can see that if you give adult drugs to a threemonthold baby, that's a dangerous thing to do."

Leicester Crown Court heard that after Luke died, in the early hours of January 15 last year, postmortem tests found 277 nanograms of methadone per millilitre of blood.

Anything between 110 and 489 nanograms per millilitre is enough to kill a child, say experts.

The toxicology checks also found a large amount of the tranquilliser diazepam. The court heard that if taken together methadone and diazepam could combine to produce "depression of the nervous and respiratory systems".

Mr Rumfitt said: "In plain English, Luke was poisoned by two of his father's drugs. He died from an overdose of methadone and diazepam."

When arrested, Grain told police: "I was expecting this."

In interviews, he first claimed he may have passed the drugs on to his son by transferring the baby's dummy from his mouth.

When the amounts found in Luke's blood were deemed too high for such an explanation, Grain claimed the lethal doses must have been administered by someone else.

He said a friend and the baby's grandmother had been at the property at the time the drugs were allegedly given. "He told a pack of lies to police about what happened," said Mr Rumfitt. "We say that this defendant comes across as devious and dishonest.

"It's also claimed that he could not then and cannot now face up to the fact that his own reckless stupidity killed his son."

DNA checks suggested that Grain gave his son the drugs by using a cup, the court heard.

In interviews with police, he admitted previously feeding Luke a small amount of methadone in a pipette. The day before Luke's death Grain had confided in a friend that he was feeling tired after being kept awake by the baby's crying, said Mr Rumfitt.

Grain had been caring for Luke at their home in Shepshed, Leicestershire, on January 13 last year after the child's mother, his partner Lisa Williamson, went to collect her two older children.

Miss Williamson - who was also on a methadone programme - did not return until the following day. When she arrived she learned Luke had been asleep throughout the day.

She told the jury: "We all thought he was cute because it was the first time we heard him snore."

Later that evening, a panicked Grain rushed downstairs with Luke, shouting to her to call an ambulance. The trial was adjourned until today.

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