A couple of ex-drug addicts was indicted Thursday for "
manslaughter
" after the death of their 14-month-old son, who had ingested methadone, according to the gendarmerie and the prosecution of Saint-Etienne.
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The boy of this family living in Bussy-Albieux (Loire) was hospitalized Monday in a state of respiratory distress.
He died shortly after at the Center hospitalier de Feurs (Loire), despite attempts at resuscitation.
Analyzes carried out within the framework of the protocol "
sudden infant death
" revealed "
a significant concentration of methadone of 453 ng / ml in the urine
", indicates David Charmatz, the public prosecutor of Saint-Etienne. Methadone is a substance provided to drug addicts to help them gradually reduce their addiction to heroin. "
The autopsy carried out this morning made it possible, a priori and subject to more in-depth forensic analyzes prescribed, to rule out any other cause of death than a drug overdose
," he adds.
Placed in custody Tuesday by the gendarmerie, the mother of the child, aged 29, and his father, aged 36 and already convicted in particular for facts related to his drug addiction, were both put in custody. examination for "
manslaughter
" and placed under judicial supervision. Tests carried out on the couple's other child, aged three, showed no signs of methadone, nor any sign of abuse. A provisional placement order was, however, taken against him by the prosecution, followed by a referral to the children's judge for educational assistance, "
given the danger incurred in the parental home,
" said the public prosecutor.
