THE DRUG-TAKING parents and stepsister of a baby who died of a methadone overdose killed him by refusing to take him to hospital when he needed help, a jury heard.

Jaquietta and Luke Bowyer are on trial, alongside Jaquietta's daughter Claire Gormley, for the manslaughter of their 22-month-old son Jacksa in June last year.

Nigel Seed QC told Winchester Crown Court: "The prosecution's case is each of the three defendants knew that he had swallowed methadone and needed treatment.

"However, they neglected to get any treatment for him for several hours and, as a result of their neglect, he died.

"All three of them were taking illicit substances.

"The methadone involved had not been prescribed for any of them."

Mr Seed said both Jaquietta Bowyer, 39, and her 27-year-old husband, called their drug dealer, "Paranoid" Pete Beraud, on the afternoon of June 4 last year.

The court heard the mother told her dealer that Jacksa had swallowed about 10 millilitres of methadone and was drowsy.

However, the jurors were told the parents ignored his advice to take their son to hospital.

Mr Seed said "The prosecution say that they acted in this way - in particular Jaquietta Bowyer - because they didn't want the involvement of social services.

"They were worried about the child being taken into care."

The prosecutor said Luke Bowyer eventually called an ambulance to their Berwyn Close home in Buckskin at 2am the next day, after the baby appeared to stop breathing.

But, by that time, Jacksa was dead.

Mr Seed told the jury: "A neighbour says that, as the baby was taken into the ambulance, Luke shouted to Jaquietta: 'You killed him'."

The court heard several post-mortem examinations carried out on Jacksa showed that he died from methadone poisoning.

Mr Seed read out a report from expert witness Professor Robert Forrest, who stated: "The advice the parents were given to get the child to hospital was the only sensible advice they were given.

"By the time the child was sleepy, he was desperately ill and in urgent need of medical attention, but he could have been successfully treated if he'd been taken to hospital at any point before he stopped breathing."

Mr Seed alleged that Claire Gormley, who was 17 at the time, also knew that Jacksa had taken the methadone. She later told the police she had seen the baby with an open bottle - although the prosecution allege she had been co-erced into giving that version of events by her mother and stepfather.

Mr Seed said Daniel Malcolm, a family friend, went into the house after the parents took Jacksa to hospital and saw Gormley - who now lives in Buttermere Drive, Warndon, Worcester - taking heroin in Bowyer's bedroom.

The mother and father were arrested on suspicion of murder after Jacksa's death, but were later released.

The prosecutor said there is no proof whether the methadone was administered to the baby or whether he swallowed it accidentally. He added that the court would also hear evidence that Gormley told a friend: "Jacksa must have been dying all day."

The jury heard that while the parents were in custody, the police bugged their home and later recorded conversations about the incident, including some in which the Bowyers were coaching Gormley about what to say in police interviews to shift the blame from them.

The case continues.