Toddler suffers gruesome death

Bradford A two-year-old suffered an agonising death after drinking toxic liquid his mother was using to help grow cannabis in his bedroom, a court heard on Tuesday.

Aaron Booth had not eaten all morning and went hunting for food and drink at lunchtime because his mother was still in bed with her boyfriend, the court was told.

He probably mistook the bottle for a fruit drink. The container of PH Up had been left on a window sill within easy reach of the inquisitive toddler in the cannabis farm that his mother had set up to make money, it was alleged.

Lauren Booth, 24, woke to find her son had collapsed, was gasping for breath, with brown lips and clearly in pain, Bradford Crown Court heard.

He was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery to remove his stomach and part of his oesophagus.

But his windpipe had also been burned away by the potassium hydroxide chemical and the injuries were so bad nothing could be done.

Yesterday Booth denied wilfully assaulting, ill-treating, neglecting or abandoning her son in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury.

PH Up is used in the soil-free cultivation of plants, and drinking just two teaspoons of the corrosive substance would be fatal.

The bottle had a child-proof top and contained the warning: "Causes burns. Keep locked up and out of reach of children." Prosecutor Tom Storey said: "It is a clear liquid in a small, blue, plastic bottle. To a young child it looks similar to a Fruit Shoot squash drink."