Toddler Dies After Drug Addict Mum Gave Him This

Lynn Wheeldon, 52, the grandmother of a toddler who died after being given methadone by his drug addict mum has spoken of her loss for the first time. The toddler, Fenton, who was two weeks shy of his second birthday, died after being given methadone by his mum, Kelly Emery, in a bid to ‘keep him quiet’ while she indulged in a drugs binge.

His grieving grandmum says she will never forgive Kelly, 34, for giving two-year-old Fenton Hogan the substance.

Ms Emery, a heroin addict from the age of 17, was convicted of her son’s manslaughter in March and sentenced to six years in prison.

Describing her grandson as ‘cute as a button’, a heartbroken Mrs Wheeldon said: ‘She’s no mother, she’s a monster. How anyone could do that to Fenton I will never know.’

Mrs Wheeldon first met heroin addict Emery after her son Michael Hogan, 31, began a relationship with her.

Although aware of Emery’s blighted childhood in the deprived Netherton area of Dudley, Mrs Wheeldon had no idea of the extent of her reliance on drugs.

‘She was known for being out of control, and I thought she was bad news,’ she explains. ‘I didn’t want Michael involved with her.’

Mr Hogan, ‘no angel’ according to his mother, had been in and out of trouble with police and Mrs Wheeldon had hoped a ‘nice girl’ might help him turn his life around.

Emery, however, was not what she had in mind and Mrs Wheeldon admits she was initially reluctant to welcome her.

But when Emery became pregnant, the 52-year-old was forced to accept that she would now be a permanent part of the family.

‘I tried my hardest to be supportive,’ she says. ‘Despite what I thought of Kelly, she was carrying my grandchild.

‘I invited her round for hearty meals and made sure she was taking care of herself.’

Then came a bombshell. ‘One day, when we at her antenatal class, she told me she had to have a meeting with her drug support worker.

‘It was then I discovered that Kelly was a recovering heroin addict. She told me she was taking a small dose of the heroin substitute methadone.

‘I was horrified – all I could think about was the impact this would have on the baby. She promised she was trying to sort herself out, and I believed her.

‘I kept a close eye on her after that, took her to her scans and blood tests.’

For her part, Emery appeared to be making an effort to stay clean and promised to stay away from drugs once the baby was born.

Pleased with her progress, Mrs Wheeldon turned her attention to her son Mr Hogan and says she hoped becoming a father would result in a similar transformation in her son.

But it wasn’t to be and shortly before the baby’s birth, Mr Hogan was sentenced to three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for robbery.

‘I was so disappointed in him,’ she says. ‘I [had] just hoped that being a dad would be the making of him.’

Determined to ensure he would still be part of the baby’s life, Mrs Wheeldon began making regular visits to see him in prison and took newborn Fenton along.

Meanwhile, Emery was, says Mrs Wheeldon, ‘good with her son’ and appeared to be living up to her promise to stay away from drugs.

‘Her house was clean and Fenton was always fed and happy,’ she explains. ‘I was sure her drug using days were over.’

Keen to help out, Mrs Wheeldon began to spend as much time as she could with her grandson – even taking him into her home at weekends in order to give his mother ‘a break’.

‘He was my world. I would have done anything for him,’ she says. ‘He’d stay every weekend and we’d go out and feed the ducks and play with his cousins.

‘He was never any trouble – he was my little angel.’

But unbeknown to Mrs Wheeldon, Emery had begun taking drugs again and had developed an addiction so powerful, it was described as being ‘more important to her than her children’ at her trial.

The first hint that something was wrong came shortly before Fenton’s second birthday when a horrified Mrs Wheeldon discovered an unopened bottle of methadone stashed in his pushchair.

‘I was furious with Kelly, but she tried to brush it off,’ she says. ‘As time went on I noticed Fenton was looking paler than usual.’

Concerned that he wasn’t being cared for properly, Mrs Wheeldon began sending him home after their weekends together with food packages filled with fruit and yoghurt.

Despite her worries, she gave Emery another chance and two weeks before his second birthday, Fenton was dropped off at Mrs Wheeldon’s home for the weekend as usual.

Grandmother and grandson enjoyed a sunny Sunday together, feeding the ducks and playing on the trampoline before Mrs Wheeldon returned the toddler to his mother at 5pm.

The next morning, a call came from Emery’s mother Angela to say Fenton had been admitted to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Mrs Wheeldon and her husband Terry rushed to the hospital but, tragically, the little boy slipped away before they could say goodbye.

Emery was there too but showed no sign of emotion. ‘I’ll never forget her expression,’ says Mrs Wheeldon. ‘It wasn’t that of a mother whose child had just died.

‘She was questioned by the police while Terry and I were taken to see Fenton. He looked like he was sleeping.

‘I couldn’t help holding him. I told him that Nana loves him more than anything in the world.’

Post mortem toxicology reports revealed that the little boy had died from methadone poisoning while tests on his hair follicles showed he had been given the drug on at least two more occasions.

A heartbroken Mrs Wheeldon says she believes that the toddler was given the substance to keep him quiet and to enable his mother to take drugs in peace.

‘What I can never forgive is the fact that Kelly didn’t come to me, say she was in a bad way, and ask me to look after Fenton full time,’ she adds.

‘I can’t believe I’ll never see my Fenton’s cheeky face again. I just wish Kelly had come to me. Instead she decided it was easier to drug him. She’s no mother – she’s a monster.’