Laura Vestuto, sentenced to six years' imprisonment for giving her 20-month-old infant anti-depressants to make him sleep in 2007, can walk away free in two years
Laura Vestuto, sentenced to six years' imprisonment for giving her 20-month-old infant anti-depressants to make him sleep in 2007, can walk away free in two years
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On September 2, 2007, Vestuto added crushed anti-depressants to 20-month-old Renzo Hassan's feed to make him sleep.
Renzo's breathing stopped when ten times the safe adult dose of amitriptyline built up in his tiny body. He died in hospital.
Vestuto pleaded guilty to causing Renzo's death and was caged for six years. But she could be out in just two, once time on remand is deducted.
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Victim: Renzo Hassan was regularly given drugs by his mother. He died in September 2007, when the drugs built up in his body to ten times the safe adult dose |
Old Bailey judge Peter Thornton branded Vestuto "purely selfish" and "self-centred". Witnesses who saw the drugged tot described him as "stoned".
He told Vestuto in court, "It is clear that you drugged him in order to keep him quiet and make life easier for yourself.
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Instead of bearing the everyday responsibility of being a parent, caring lovingly for your son, even when he was tired or troublesome, you embarked on a deliberate course of administering adult drugs, knowing it was wrong and risky.
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You gave him drugs for purely selfish, self-centred reasons, thinking only of yourself."
The tragedy
Vestuto's partner Yilmaz Hassan was woken at 6 am on that day to be confronted by Vestuto who walked into their bedroom in Hackney, East London, holding Renzo's lifeless body. An hour earlier, she had taken the crying tot out of the room for a feed.
Other drugs
Staff at Homerton University Hospital, where Renzo was rushed to for breathing trouble, became suspicious when Vestuto showed no emotion on Renzo's death.
They then ordered a second post mortem. Tests showed that he had 10 times the adult therapeutic dose in his body. Traces of other drugs, including painkillers, were also found in his system.
Judge Thornton also stated that Vestuto had been prescribed the drug seven times in the months leading up to the boy's death, for backache and to make her sleep, but was not taking it herself when Renzo died.
Investigating officers found traces of Amitriptyline on the baby's feeder, and also believe it may have been added to juice or milk.
Judge Thornton said Vestuto had compounded the suffering of her mother and husband by denying giving Renzo the medication and trying to shift the blame on to them.
'Tried to help'
Attorney for the defence, Isabella Forshall, said Vestuto had intended to help Renzo. "Like any parent, she was distressed when he was teething and miserable, and that is why she took the step she did a desperately reckless one," said Forshall.
Meanwhile, Yilmaz Hassan expressed his anger over the verdict saying, "She should have got life."
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