Pair too stoned to care for child

The parents of a 2-year-old were so comatose after smoking synthetic cannabis, they were unaware the police had arrived and removed their child.

The couple – whom Stuff has chosen not to name to protect the identity of the child – both received prison sentences at the Rotorua District Court yesterday on one charge each of child neglect.

They were sentenced separately via audio visual link. The father faced additional charges of assault with intent and breaching release conditions.

The police summary of facts revealed the child-neglect charge stemmed from an incident on January 25 this year, when the parents and child – strapped in a stroller and dressed in a heavy sweatshirt and with a blanket covering its legs – were in Rotorua’s city centre.

It was about 2.30pm and the pair had just shared a synthetic cannabis cigarette. ‘‘Shortly afterwards, they both became almost comatose.’’

The summary notes the temperatures were in the high 20s and the child had been left in direct sunlight – which alarmed passers-by, one of whom alerted police.

‘‘Police located both parents in a vacant, vegetative state, initially unresponsive and unable to supply their own details,’’ the police summary said.

‘‘Both defendants were initially unaware their child had been removed and taken into police care and failed to ask about [its] whereabouts.’’ When police removed the heavy covers off the child, they discovered ‘‘insect bites and open sores, or scabies, over parts of the child’s body’’. The child was taken to Rotorua Hospital and the defendants placed into custody. During processing, a bag containing a gram of synthetic cannabis fell from the father’s right sock.

The mother’s defence lawyer, Scott Mills, said his client had shown significant insight and remorse over her offending. Sentencing the mother to 10 months in prison and six months of post-release drug and alcohol conditions, Judge Greg Hollister-jones revealed she had been sober for five months, ‘‘the longest in about 10 years’’. He was critical of her behaviour on that day, however.

‘‘You’re a mother, you’re there to protect [the child], take care of [the child],’’ he said. ‘‘It is completely unacceptable to be so intoxicated on an illicit substance.’’

Sentencing the father to a year and seven months in prison, with similar release conditions, Hollister-jones also criticised his state of intoxication on the day. The judge said the assault charge stemmed from an attack on the mother on April 15 this year, when the father head-butted her ‘‘with enough force to knock her to the ground’’.

He was on release conditions at the time and had four previous family violence convictions. The father’s lawyer, Tim Braithwaite, said his client had shown ‘‘a real desire to address his synthetic addictions’’.

‘‘He accepts he put himself before his baby,’’ he said.