Addict is jailed over baby death

Nathan Grain was found guilty of the manslaughter of his son

A father who killed his three-month-old baby by giving him lethal doses of a heroin substitute has been jailed.

Nathan Grain, 34, of Paterson Place, Shepshed, Leicestershire, was found guilty of manslaughter at Leicester Crown Court on 26 April.

The court heard Grain had given methadone and diazepam to his baby son Luke to stop him crying.

He was given a sentence of imprisonment for the public's protection and ordered to serve a minimum of five years.

You showed a reckless indifference to the safety of your tiny baby Judge Michael Pert

Judge Michael Pert told Grain he will be on licence for life and banned from working with children on his release.

In sentencing, he added: "You showed a repeated and reckless indifference to the safety of your tiny baby.

"It's my observation of you that, from your evidence to the jury and your attitude since conviction, you are quite capable of similar behaviour in future to an infant in your care."

After Luke died on 15 January 2006, toxicology reports found high levels of methadone and diazepam in his blood.

At the time, Mr Grain was on a methadone recovery programme for a heroin addiction.

In police interviews, Mr Grain said 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 this explanation, Mr Grain said the dose must have been administered by someone else.

Feels 'remorse'

He said a friend and the baby's grandmother had been at the house in Shepshed at the time the drugs were given, but DNA checks suggested Grain gave his son the drugs by using a cup.

Luke's cause of death was recorded as an overdose of methadone and diazepam, a lethal combination for a child, experts said.

In mitigation, Lynne Tayton, defending, said her client was remorseful and had found it difficult to deal with the death of his only child.

She said: "For a parent to accept the death of a child is difficult in any event, but to deal with the fact that the parent has been found guilty, has been told he is responsible, is even more difficult.

"Perhaps it's not admirable but perhaps understandable that this defendant finds it very difficult to come to terms with that. It's clear that he does feel remorse for what happened to Luke."