Mother jailed for poisoning her baby's milk with painkillers

A mother has been jailed after she admitted to repeatedly poisoning her one-year-old daughter's milk with the painkiller Tramadol.

Drug addict Rose Jones, 30, is believed to have deliberately made her child ill in an attempt to claim higher levels of benefits.

Her daughter had to be hospitalised several times after suffering fits.

Doctors eventually worked out that the child was being poisoned - at which point Jones attempted to blame her former partner.

She eventually admitted charges of child cruelty relating to tampering with her child's milk and perverting the course of justice.

Judge Ian Lawrie QC said it was hard to find any sympathy for Jones as he jailed her for seven years and two months at Plymouth Crown Court.

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

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

Jones, of Plymouth, burst into tears as she was led down handcuffed from the dock. The judge told her that she would have to serve at least half of her sentence.

The drug addict had tried to lead police off her tracks after they found large amounts of painkiller in her daughter's feeding bottle.

She told police it was "sickening" to suggest she could have carried out the poisonings, and instead sought to blame her former partner, Shane Cruickshank, who she claimed had been threatening the family.

Mr Cruickshank was arrested and questioned by police but was later cleared of any blame. He said that Jones had "ripped my life apart" with the false accusations in a statement read in court, adding: "I feel I will be scarred for life".

Jones was also charged with poisoning another of her young children, but the charges were allowed to be left on file.

In defence, her barrister Ali Rafati said that Jones had been struggling as a result of her own addiction and had used painkillers to calm her daughter.

The court heard that Jones' young children have been taken into care and she intends to undergo treatment to stop her having any more children whilst she is in prison.