A 50-year-old woman who allowed a two-year-old boy to swallow Valium has been sentenced to a curfew order after failing to do her unpaid work.
Glenda Swan previously admitted wilfully neglecting the child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health by failing to secure a tablet containing Diazepam – a class C drug – which the boy ingested.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard the youngster was taken to hospital and found to have slurred speech and difficulty with balance.
Procurator fiscal depute Jill Currie said Swan had been looking after the boy at a property in Lochgelly’s Melville Street on July 17, 2020.
She called for an ambulance and told the call handler the child was crying and “keeps going in and out of consciousness”.
Swan, of Lochore‘s Rosewell Drive, then said: “I think he has taken Valium”.
She described him as going “limp” and being unable to walk.
When the call handler asked how he managed to access the tablet, Swan said: “I had my prescription lying and he has went and got his hands on it.
“I turned my back for two seconds”.
Another person there described the boy’s lips as blue in colour.
Valium ‘flushed down toilet’
The fiscal depute said the child was taken by ambulance to Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital, where he was struggling to hold his weight and was sleepy and unresponsive.
Ms Currie said a forensic medical examination revealed the boy had dilated pupils, problems with balance, slurred speech and poor motor control.
The fiscal added: “It was indicative of being under the influence and tests confirmed the presence of a Valium tablet in (the boy)”.
Police attended the property in Lochgelly but did not find any drugs, though Swan admitted she had a plastic tub containing five blue tablets containing Valium.
Ms Currie said it is believed another person at the property disposed of the remaining tablets down the toilet “in a panic” before police arrived.
When Swan was later charged she said: “I’m sorry and it was an accident”.
Curfew order
Swan was originally sentenced for the offence in July and was told to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and placed on an offender supervision order.
The court heard she has been unable to carry out the work for physical reasons.
Sheriff James MacDonald revoked the order and sentenced her to a restriction of liberty order for 10 weeks, during which she must stay at home between 8pm and 6am daily.
The sheriff said the potential consequence to the child put the offence “unquestionably at the custody threshold”.
Defence lawyer Graham Inch said Swan had been self-medicating with drugs as a result of personal tragedies in a three-year period before the incident.
He said she has now bought a lock box to safely store her medication.
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