Mother who added poison to her breast milk is jailed

A MOTHER jailed for seven years for poisoning her one-year-old daughter by putting a powerful painkiller in her breast milk tried to blame the toddler’s father, leaving him “scarred for life”.

Rose Jones, 30, repeatedly added high doses of tramadol into her own expressed milk and when she was caught, accused her ex-partner, leading to him being arrested.

Jones, a mother of eight from Keyham, Plymouth, was addicted to the opium-based painkiller when she poisoned her daughter – leading to hospital treatment for fits.

Tests established that the prescription drug could not have been found in Jones’s breast milk at the high levels recorded unless it was added, the court heard. A hair sample showed the baby had tramadol in her system for some months. She has not suffered any longterm effects, the court heard.

Jones maintained her innocence un- til shortly before her trial was due to begin when she admitted child cruelty and perverting the course of justice.

Judge Ian Lawrie said Jones had “committed repeated acts of cruelty” on her daughter.

He said: “What we have here is not violence in its traditional sense, but in many ways it is perhaps worse.

“It is the administration of poison over a length of time; there is an element of persistence and almost calculation about this.”

She falsely claimed that her former partner Shane Cruickshank was responsible for the poisoning and accused him of threatening to blow up her house and sending someone to stab her. Cruickshank was arrested and later exonerated but in a victim impact statement, he said: “Words can’t describe the pain Rose has caused me, I feel I will be scarred for life.”

Ali Rafati, defending, said Jones suffered from depression and took tramadol, which could cause hallucinations.