How A Weed-Smoking Father Crushed His 4-Month-Old Baby To Death By Rolling Over Him While Sleeping

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A pot -smoking dad accidentally suffocated his four-month-old son after rolling on top of him as they slept in the same bed, an inquest heard.

Isaac Newton's lifeless body was discovered by distraught dad Brooklyn Newton and his older sister on the morning of September 6, 2019.

An inquest heard Mr Newton put his son in the bed surrounded by pillows at around 10pm the previous evening.

At 12.30am he checked on Isaac and gave him his bottle before smoking some cannabis and getting into bed between the two children an hour later.

The court heard Mr Newton, of Blackpool, Lancashire, awoke at 5.55am to find his son cold and unresponsive with blood around his nose.

Mr Newton ran through the house, which he shared with his parents, shouting for help and attempted to perform CPR.

An ambulance was called and Isaac was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Blackpool Coroner's Court heard.

Police attended Mr Newton's house and found drugs paraphernalia in the bedroom along with a cot that did not appear to have been slept in.
Evidence of prescribed medication and cannabis were found in Mr Newton's system but there was not enough to warrant criminal charges, it was heard.

Det Insp James Lillystone told the court Mr Newton was "distressed" and "shaking" on the morning in question and told officers "it's my fault".

In a statement after the hearing, Lancashire Police said: "An investigation established that no criminal offences had taken place. No arrests were made."

A postmortem carried out by Dr Alison Armor found Isaac had been dead for some time and was lying face down on the bed when he was found.

She said it was unlikely Isaac had rolled into a face down position on his own, as his family said he was not able to roll over yet.

Dr Armor told the hearing: "The cause of death was due to overlaying, which occurs when the weight of an adult body overlays the body of the baby.

"The effects of this on the chest and abdominal region prevent the baby from breathing.

"It is an unsafe practice to take a child into a double bed with an adult.

"This is exacerbated by the presence of alcohol or drugs. In this case, the cannabis levels in the father indicated previous cannabis use."

The court heard Isaac often co-slept with both his father and his mother, who lives in Preston, despite both parents being warned it was dangerous.

Handing down a conclusion of accidental death, coroner Alan Wilson said: "This is a very upsetting set of circumstances.

"During the course of the evening his father has smoked some cannabis.

"It's possible that having one joint of cannabis did impair him."

Mr Wilson said he planned to write to the Department of Health and local children's services to raise his concerns over unsafe sleeping."

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Source: Daily Star UK