Street of pain where drug addict allowed her own son to die...
Josh Sandiford retraces the last steps of a little boy left to fend for himself in the tawdry world of a mother who sold her body to fund a drug habit before her son’s death
MORE than 1,600 days have passed since Hakeem Hussain died. The seven-year-old’s cold, lifeless body was discovered on the ground outside a house on Cook Street, Nechells, Birmingham, on November 26, 2017.
Laura Heath, his heroin addicted mother, did not wake up as the lone seven-year-old suffered a fatal asthma attack.
Four-and-a-half years is a long time.
But neighbours on a busy road close to the site of Hakeem’s death – where the little boy spent much of his short life – still remember the “kind child” who would run around and play outside.
Despite his severe asthma, Hakeem was exposed to routine drug smoking.
A sample of the youngster’s hair showed significant exposure to heroin, cocaine, and cannabis.
Heath – convicted at Coventry Crown Court of the boy’s manslaughter through gross negligence – was described by prosecutors as “devoted” to drugs at the expense of her son’s welfare.
The addict was condemned as “indifferent to her son’s risk of death” and it was claimed Hakeem would still be alive if not for her behaviour.
Before trial, the 40-year-old had admitted four counts of child cruelty, including failing to provide proper medical supervision and exposing Hakeem to class A drugs.
One neighbour painted a shocking picture of “cars pulling up outside Heath’s Nechells home at Long Acre all day and all night”. She had turned to sex work to fund her crippling addiction, something defence barristers argued was a debilitating illness.
But it wouldn’t be Long Acre where Hakeem died.
Reality soon caught up with Heath, who told police she “blagged everyone” to afford her £55 daily drugs habit.
Gas and electricity supplies were cut off, rendering her house little more than a drug den.
That’s when Heath all but moved in with Timothy Busk, a now dead friend who lived a three minute walk away on Cook Street.
During November, 2017, Heath and Hakeem were spending a significant amount of time at the Cook Street property and staying overnight.
Jurors heard Heath would steal from Mr Busk to fund her drug addiction and police photographs showed evidence of paraphernalia, including a blue inhaler mouthpiece which had been adapted for use as a pipe to smoke crack cocaine.
The Cook Street property was described as messy, cluttered and dirty. There were, despite Hakeem’s condition, “loads of cigarettes on the table”.
Now, almost five years on, a shadow hangs over the property.
The home is occupied by a new resident with nothing to do with what happened and who did not want to talk.
But a stone’s throw away on Long Acre, where Hakeem lived with his mother before she failed to pay the bills, neighbours were more willing to open up.
Once upon a time, the now neglected home where Heath and Hakeem lived had a gravel driveway.
But its front lawn is currently overgrown and a bushy tree covers the upstairs front window. The downstairs curtains are open during the day and the inside of a messy living room can be seen from the public road.
A neighbour, who gave his name only as Raghu, said he had seen people coming back and forth in the two years he had lived on the row. He explained the police had been called to the property several times due to vandals breaking in and trespassing.
“Someone has broken the door,” he said, referring to the lack of security. “I don’t know if it’s broken now. I have seen people outside at night.
“The door is just cardboard. I have no idea who the owner or landlord is. I’m not sure.”
Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said she had lived on Long Acre for more than a decade. She claimed she knew Heath and would lend her items.
The woman explained that Hakeem and her child played together. “They would run around,” she said.
“They didn’t go in each other’s houses but they would play out the front.”
The resident described Hakeem as a “kind child” and revealed she had struggled to sleep when he died.
She remarked that while the area was “not really safe” and she had been robbed multiple times, neighbours did speak to one another and there was a sense of community.
But residents were once plagued by chaotic scenes, she recalled, speaking of nightly “shouting and screaming” when Heath lived at the property.
There were cars pulling up outside the address at all hours as cashstrapped Heath turned to sex work to buy drugs.
“She had different people coming and different cars coming,” the neighbour said.
“It was not nice. She borrowed my iron to iron her clothes. My child and their child were at school. They were in the same class, it was year three, I think.
“When I heard he died I couldn’t
sleep for a few days. I couldn’t.”
The neighbour claimed locals heard neglected Hakeem screaming on several occasions. “My neighbours told me a little bit but I don’t know,” she said.
The lady added: “My friend said the child was screaming. All the time he was screaming. I didn’t hear because I live this side but she was saying he was screaming.”
Asked to confirm she was talking about Hakeem, the neighbour responded: “Yes. Inside screaming. It was when she was living here with the child. I don’t know why he was screaming. It was all the time screaming. He was screaming really, really loud.”
The neighbour said the case had stayed with her almost five years on and questioned how it had happened.
She expressed her shock and added she couldn’t get what had happened to little Hakeem out of her head.
Asked how it made her feel, she emotionally added: “What happened to him? He was a nice child. He was a kind child. I was shocked how he died.”
When Hakeem passed away, detectives didn’t have to travel far to carry out their investigation and a flurry of police activity engulfed residents of both Long Acre and Cook Street. Almost half a decade on, it is clear that while the bright lights of police cars have vanished, the scars left behind by the loss of a little boy will be visible for quite some time.
Heath will be sentenced on Thursday.
I don’t know why he was screaming. He was screaming really, really loud
Neighbour