‘No evidence’ to charge couple for child’s drug death

AN AUSTRALIAN toddler died after being given morphine and methadone by either his mother or her boyfriend, but there is not enough evidence to charge either of them, a coroner found yesterday.

The 22-month-old boy was found dead in his vomit-stained cot on January 29, 2006, with a brown substance around his mouth. An autopsy showed a large amount of the drugs had been given to him shortly before he died, and hair tests revealed he had previously been drugged for at least three months before his death.

The boy’s mother – who cannot be named for legal reasons – left him and her two other children in the care of her boyfriend, Junior Perese, for at least 10 minutes the night before he was found dead.