Sentence for mum whose son died

Lauren Booth, 24, was growing cannabis in her home and was asleep when her son Aaron drank the toxic liquid.

Aaron had not been fed and was probably extremely hungry and thirsty. He died 11 days later after his windpipe disintegrated. He suffered several other injuries, including burns to his stomach, pancreas and spleen.

Comments Booth made to Aaron’s father while their son was in hospital, and information found on a notebook and laptop seized from the house in Norris Close, showed that the pH Up brand plant food was being used for growing cannabis.

The blue bottle could have been mistaken by Aaron as the soft drink Fruit Shoot, prosecutor Thomas Storey told the trial at Bradford Crown Court in February. But it contained a highly toxic concentration of potassium hydroxide, or caustic potash - two teaspoons of it would have been a fatal dose.

Booth and her partner were awoken by a loud thud at around 12.40pm on November 6 2010 to find Aaron lying down with a brown mouth and lips. By the time paramedics arrived Aaron’s mouth and lips were purple and he was foaming at the mouth.

When Aaron’s father, Mohammed Khan, went to hospital Booth seemed more concerned about having to move her cannabis plants than her son’s condition.

Mr Storey said: “She told him that she and her partner had been trying to make some money by growing skunk (a type of cannabis) in the house, almost seeming annoyed by the involvement of the police because they were going to have to find somewhere else to grow the skunk, seemingly not bothered about her son.”

The laptop taken from the house found that videos giving tips on how to grow cannabis had been accessed and a Google search had been entered, which read: “How to use pH test for ganja.” The notebook had a page containing numerous references to cannabis and home-growing.

Booth denied wilfully ill-treating or neglecting her son but was found guilty by a jury after two hours of deliberation.