Adam Downs: Truganina dad charged after toddler allegedly swallowed ice
A Melbourne toddler was rushed to hospital after it allegedly swallowed the drug ice while in the care of its Truganina father while the mother was shopping.
West
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A Wyndham man has been charged after his toddler allegedly swallowed methamphetamine and had to be rushed to hospital.
Adam Downs, 38, faced the Werribee Magistrates’ Court via video link on Tuesday, October 20, for a contest mention where his lawyer, Tessa Di Paolo, told the court he planned to contest a single charge of reckless conduct exposing a child to serious injury.
The court heard Downs was at home in Truganina with his 17-month-old just days before Christmas in 2018.
Sergeant Eva Semertzidis told the court the child’s mother, who Downs had separated from but still lived with, had gone out on December 19 to do some late night shopping.
She returned home about 4am and found the child severely ill.
The child, whose gender was not revealed, was rushed to hospital where doctors allegedly found methamphetamine and benzodiazepine in its system.
“The child was in the father’s care that night and the mother had gone out shopping with a friend,” Sgt Semertzidis told the court.
“She’s gone out and done Christmas shopping and come back and seen the child is in such a state.”
The court heard Downs and his ex also had a four-year-old daughter and they lived with their children’s aunt and her child.
Sgt Semertzidis told the court police later searched the house where they allegedly found deal bags in the master bedroom and a glass pipe containing remnants of a substance, believed to be drugs, on a coffee table in the living room.
Ms Di Paolo told the court the police case against her client was weak.
The child had also been in the care of its mother and its grandfather throughout the course of the evening, she told the court, and she said it could not be proven it was her client’s fault the child had come across the illicit drug.
Magistrate Alanna Duffy adjourned the matter for a further hearing in December.
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