Addict father jailed for killing baby with methadone

A drug addict who killed his baby son by feeding him a heroin substitute and tranquilliser to stop him crying has jailed for a minimum of five years.

Nathan Grain, 35, gave three-month-old Luke methadone and diazepam to quieten him after complaining to friends last year that his sleep was being spoilt by the boy's teething.

Nigel Rumfitt QC, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court: "In plain English, Luke was poisoned by two of his father's drugs."

Grain, from Shepshed, Leicestershire, was convicted of manslaughter by a jury earlier this year.

He administered the drugs while the child's mother, his partner Lisa Williamson, went to collect her two older children.

Sentencing him, Judge Michael Pert QC said Grain should serve at least five years before being considered for parole.

He told Grain he had shown "repeated recklessness", adding: "I accept you did not intend to kill your son, but you kept from his mother and everyone else the fact that you were drugging your baby."