A British mother has been accused of killing her 7-year-old son by leaving him outside overnight on one of the coldest nights of the year. Laura Heath, 39, was charged with gross negligence manslaughter and child cruelty over the death of Hakeem Hussain but will face trial in the coming months.
Hakeem Hussain: Trial date set for mum accused of killing son – BBC News https://t.co/sXaYyq2oID
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- Hakeem was found unconscious outside his great-uncle’s house. He and his mother had been living at the property in Birmingham and the boy was believed to have been locked outside in the cold in November 2017.
- The little boy had suffered a cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A later post-mortem examination found that his exact cause of death was an asthma attack, something that could easily have been prevented had he been inside the property.
- Heath broke her duty of care. Prosecutors said Heath’s addition to “smoking heroin and crack cocaine” took precedence and that she “failed to manage [Hakeem’s] asthma” via twice-daily medication. She also failed him “by exposing him to known asthma triggers; smoke, dust and low temperature, and impairing your own ability, by smoking heroin and crack cocaine, and failing to seek medical help when clear his asthma symptoms were not under control,” The Sun reports.
- Heath denied all charges against her. Appearing in court to answer to the charges against her, Heath wore a gray Nike hoodie and her hair in a pontyail. The appearance lasted only 20 minutes and served to set a date for her upcoming trial, which was decided to be March 14.
