A couple of ex-drug addicts were indicted Thursday for "manslaughter" after the death of their 14-month-old son.
The baby had ingested methadone, explain the gendarmerie and the prosecution of Saint-Etienne.
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 addicts to help them gradually reduce their addiction to heroin.
The couple's second child temporarily placed
"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", adds the prosecutor.
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.
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Tests carried out on the couple's other child, aged three, showed no signs of methadone, nor any sign of abuse.
The prosecution, however, issued a provisional placement order in his regard, followed by a referral to the judge for children in educational assistance, "taking into account the danger incurred in the parental home".
