Addict admits child cruelty

A three-year-old boy was found strapped into an undersized car seat in a Shropshire house surrounded by needles and syringes, a court has been told.

Heroin addict Matthew Edwards, of Gordon Road in Trench, Telford, appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday and admitted child cruelty.

The court heard the toddler, who showed the development of an eight-month-old, was found by police when they went to a house in Telford last May looking for 24-year-old Edwards.

There was a strong smell of urine and the child was rocking in the car seat and then tipping over.

Drug treatment

The court was told social workers found marks from the car seat on the child's buttocks.

They had been monitoring the child and had brought in a nursery nurse to help but the service stopped because the child's mother was unco-operative, the court heard.

Edwards admitted he was a heroin addict and had used the drug while the child was there.

Sentence has been deferred until 10 October and Edwards has been made the subject of a drug testing and treatment order.