Parents Avoid Prison After Baby's Cocaine-Related Death
A judge handed a suspended sentence to parents whose newborn daughter died after potentially ingesting cocaine through breastfeeding.
The parents of a newborn baby girl, believed to have died after ingesting cocaine through breastfeeding, have received suspended jail sentences. Darcey Maunder was found unresponsive in a hotel room in Newquay, Cornwall, on November 11, 2023. Her parents, Andrew Maunder and Rochelle Thomas, had been using cocaine, which prosecutors stated put the 9-day-old infant at risk of "unnecessary suffering." A judge at Truro Crown Court opted for an "exceptional view" in sentencing, acknowledging the incident occurred three years prior and that the prosecution could not definitively establish the cause of death. "Most likely she ingested the cocaine through breast feeding," the judge remarked, though he clarified the parents were not legally responsible for the death.
During the investigation, tubes, scales, and a bag containing cocaine were found in the hotel room. Analysis of Thomas's hair strands indicated cocaine use, including during her pregnancy. Maunder admitted to using cocaine in the hotel bathroom, and Thomas stated she had used the drug shortly after Darcey's birth and while eight months pregnant. Both parents admitted to a charge of child cruelty.
Defending Maunder, Victoria Bastock described the situation as a "tragic set of circumstances" keenly felt by the parents who "very much loved their daughter." The judge, Simon Carr, noted Thomas's history of PTSD and depression, which she used cocaine to cope with, and Maunder's struggles with alcohol, drugs, and mental health, describing his remorse as "genuine."
Judge Carr sentenced both parents to 30 months in jail, suspended for three years, with an additional 12 months of probation and a drug rehabilitation requirement for Thomas. He stated that immediate custody would be "futile" and that "nothing I say will bring Darcey back."