Baby suffocated on bed after parents spent night drinking and drug taking

Rhys Jones was found face-down on the bed at his Harcourt Road home, South Shore, at around 3pm on February 3.

At his inquest at Blackpool Town Hall, coroner Alan Wilson heard how Rhys’ parents, Christopher and Nicola Jones, had consumed 24 cans of lager between them and taken drugs, including cocaine, shortly before their son’s death.

No charges were brought against the pair by police who said the grieving parents were “very open and honest” from the outset of their investigation.

Reading from a statement Mr Jones provided to the police, Mr Wilson told how Mr Jones, an aircraft engineer, attended a job interview in Cheshire on February 2.

When he returned he took his wife and son out for fish and chips in Thornton, and the couple bought some lager.

At 8.30pm that night, after both Mr and Mrs Jones had consumed one can of lager each, Mr Jones bathed Rhys and dressed him. He was put in his Moses basket in the bedroom sometime between 9pm and 9.30pm.Mr and Mrs Jones continued drinking downstairs before each snorting two lines of cocaine that Mrs Jones, who told the court she had gone back to her maiden name Hodgson, had left over from a night out.

At around 2.30am, Mrs Jones also smoked a cannabis joint, which Mr Jones had “one or two” puffs on.

Mrs Jones stopped drinking around 2.30am, and Mr Jones stopped around an hour later. In total, they drank 24 cans of lager, with Mr Jones consuming “14 or 15” of them.

The couple went to bed at around 4am, shortly after feeding Rhys, who had woken up briefly.

At 7.30am, Rhys stirred again and the couple took him downstairs, where he was fed by Mrs Jones.

The family stayed downstairs for two to three hours before Mr Jones took Rhys upstairs to “give Nicola some peace”.

Mr Jones put Rhys on the pillow on the double bed and fed him. He put Rhys down on his back around an arm’s length away from him and watched TV until he accidentally fell asleep at around noon.

Mr Jones later told police that he “felt merry but wouldn’t have driven a car”. He said he had no intention of falling asleep and if he had known he was going to, he would not have put Rhys on the bed.

At around 3pm, Mrs Jones entered the bedroom and found Rhys face-down and unresponsive, with his face blue and blood coming from his nose.

Mr Jones told the court that he believed his son’s body may have been pressed against his arm when he woke up, but Mrs Jones said she saw a small gap between them.

An ambulance was called and Rhys was taken with his parents to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Dr Alison Armour, who carried out a post-mortem, found evidence Rhys had been lying face-down on the bed.

She said the cause of death was asphyxiation by overlaying, which occurs when the weight or part of the weight of an adult or older child lays on top of the body of a baby.

When asked whether Rhys could have ended up in such a position by himself, she said: “Rhys was six months, so he would have had some head control. My view is that if this was just a passive act with no force, this would be unlikely because the child would have been able to move his head.”

However, Mr Wilson said there was not enough evidence to determine that Mr Jones had smothered his son, as Rhys had recently learned to roll onto his front.

He said: “I have to find ultimately that Rhys was not in a safe sleeping environment, not simply because of that evidence provided by Dr Armour, but because this was a situation whereby, unfortunately, he was sharing a bed with someone who had consumed alcohol, had been using cocaine, and that inevitably compromised the ability of the parent to respond to noises or movement the child might make.

“It also means we have a lack of clarity for that three hour window between Rhys being given his feed and being found at 3pm.

“There was evidence of risk factors: evidence of parental smoking, co-sleeping, drugs and alcohol.

“What we do not know is how Rhys came to be in a face-down position.

“For a brief period of time he had showed signs of starting to move onto his front, but not to put himself onto his back.

“It remains unclear as to how he came to be on his front, and that’s where the level of cocaine and cannabis use may have been a factor, because we don’t know what happened, and neither does his father.”

A blood test taken from Mr Jones at 5.40pm on the day of Rhys’ death found a level of blood alcohol too low for criminal charges to be brought.

By the time the test was taken, the court heard, it had been approximately 14 hours since Mr Jones’ last drink.

Det Insp Kevin Simmons, of Blackpool Police, said: “(Mr and Mrs Jones) were very, very open and honest from the outset. It was actually Mr Jones who pointed out where the cannabis was taken.

“The home was immaculately presented, giving no issues of concern.

“An examination of Rhys at the hospital showed no signs of trauma or injury and a blood sample was taken from Christopher with his consent.

“(Mrs Jones) was absolutely distraught and it wouldn’t have been informed consent had we attempted (to take a blood sample from her).”

He said there was no evidence that Rhys had been the victim of a crime, and there had been no third party involvement.

Handing down a conclusion of accidental death due to oxygen deprivation and acute airway obstruction, Mr Wilson said: “It’s clear to me that however it has happened, his airway has been obstructed.

“Whether that was as a result of coming into contact with his father, or whether it was as a result of finding himself on his front, his airway has been obstructed.

“It’s a distressing and very difficult set of circumstances.”