Woman jailed for giving baby methadone-soaked dummy

A ten week-old baby nearly died after being given a dummy dipped in methadone to stop him crying. Susan Taylor, 29, gave the baby boy a dummy dripping with the heroin substitute in a bid to keep him quiet after complaining he was “a grumpy baby.” She rolled it around in her methadone measuring cup before putting it in his mouth.

The baby sucked on the dummy for around five minutes before passing out in his Moses basket, turning his face grey and his lips blue. His carer Lynn Cowan, 28, had no idea why the tot was unconscious until Taylor told her the truth once the pair had taken him to hospital. But she kept quiet rather than tell medics.



Taylor had a three-year jail sentence imposed on her last September for culpably and recklessly causing the baby to ingest methadone. However a court order imposed because Cowan was also to face trial meant it could not be reported until today. The couple will be reunited in Cornton Vale prison after Cowan was sentenced to 10 months. In what she claimed was “a misguided sense of loyalty,” Cowan had failed to tell medics at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children what had happened.

Their conspiracy was uncovered two days later when samples revealed a potentially fatal dose of methadone in the infant’s body. Doctors say it is too early to know whether the boy – who cannot be named for legal reasons – will suffer any lasting effects. He is no longer in the care of either of the women, a court was told yesterday.