Parents jailed for tot death
- 00:02:05
- ITN
Parents jailed for tot death
A drug addicted couple have been jailed for five years each for causing the death of their baby son.The Old Bailey heard ten-month-old Neo Craig died from a punch to the stomach and had been dead for hours before an ambulance was called last Christmas Eve. His blood and hair roots showed a cocaine contamination from birth.Judge Richard Hone, QC, said Neo was on the local authority child protection register at Havering, East London, following "unexplained" scratches and bruises.The judge listed the catalogue of severe injuries Neo sustained later, including fractures to ribs and his right thigh.His parents were spending £250 a day on their crack cocaine habit, funded by a £60,000 inheritance which Neo's mother, qualified nurse Sharma Dookhooha, received.Scrap dealer James Craig, 26, and Dookhooha, 25, admitted causing or allowing the death of their son. The prosecution dropped a murder charge.Judge Richard Hone, QC, said they claimed they loved Neo "but the bitter truth is that you loved crack cocaine more."He described the couple's "violent, abusive and volatile relationship" and their selfish decision to bring a child into the world.Neo had been seen by a health visitor on October 16 when he was recovering from fractures to his ribs and thigh. "He was covered from neck to ankle in white baby powder and the visitor was unable to tell if there were any marks on the body," said Richard Whittam, prosecuting.When Dookhooha was asked why there was so much talc over Neo's skin she replied "I like the smell of the powder."A Health worker knew the couple abused drugs and had earlier seen bruises on the baby, and a social worker who visited the home saw Craig the kitchen smoking crack.A "conference" about Neo in June last year was attended by social workers, police and local council officers after a health visitor saw Neo with bruises.Havering Council is launching a full inquiry into the tragedy.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
ITN | November 8, 2007
