A mother and her partner have been found guilty of child cruelty after her four-year-old daughter died after collapsing at home in Grimsby.
Poppy Widdison later died in hospital from a cardiac arrest in June 2013.
Her mother Michala Pyke, 37, of Ladysmith Road, and her former partner John Rytting, 40, of Frederick Street denied giving drugs to Poppy Widdison in the months before her death.
The pair were remanded in custody and will be sentenced in January.
The jury at Hull Crown Court heard Pyke and Rytting encouraged the young girl to eat sedatives because they felt she was an inconvenience to their relationship.
Text messages between the pair talked about Poppy having a “blue Smartie”, believed to be a reference to the sedative diazepam, and going to sleep, the court heard.
‘Grossly inappropriate’
David Gordon, prosecuting, told the jury: “We say Pyke and Rytting, the defendants, are just wanting to get on with their love life, wanting to enjoy each other’s company and it may be this young girl was something of an encumbrance.”
A post-mortem examination could not establish a cause of death but toxicology tests carried out on her blood and hair found various drugs and showed the young girl had been exposed to and had ingested significant amounts of heroin and methadone for a period of between two and six months before her death, the court heard.
The drugs did not contribute to Poppy’s death but experts agreed there was a “long period of ill-treatment and neglect by the grossly inappropriate administration of various drugs to the child by the defendants”, the jury heard.
As well as the child cruelty charge, the pair were also found guilty of possessing Class A and B drugs with intent to supply.
Source bbc
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