Kelly Emery, 36, who killed her two-year-old son by feeding him a methadone substitute to make him sleep so she could smoke crack has been ‘found dead in a hostel’ in Maidstone, Kent
A heroin addict mother who killed her two-year-old son by feeding him a methadone substitute has been ‘found dead in a hostel’.
Kelly Emery, 36, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2015 after she gave toddler Fenton Hogan the substance to send him to sleep during a drugs binge.
The former addict is understood to have overdosed in a hostel room in Maidstone, Kent on Friday.
Believing Emery took her own life, Michael Hogan, father of murdered Fenton Hogan, told MailOnline: ‘I’m happy. It’s made me feel better that she’s taken her own life.
‘It’s made me feel way better, but I still think she’s taken the easy way out after what she did to my son.’
Explaining how he heard the news of his son’s death while still in prison himself, Mr Hogan added: ‘She ruined my life. He was my first child and he died when I was in prison so it makes me feel better that she had a hard time inside.’
Emery was sentenced to six years in prison in 2015 after she gave toddler Fenton Hogan the substance to ‘knock him out’ during a drugs binge – he died with 10mg of the substance in his blood
Blood samples taken from the child showed he had as much of the drug on his system as an adult on methadone maintenance therapy. And hair samples showed that, in the months before his death, he had ingested the drug on at least two other occasions
A former fellow inmate of Emery’s at Oakham who did not wish to be named said: ‘She came in to Oakham with another child killer. Two of them at the same time.
‘She didn’t have any friends, unsurprisingly.
‘She made up this story that the kid managed to get into a bucket and drank it himself. It was just rubbish.
‘I’m not sad. I’m glad. She’s gone to hell.’
Michael Hogan (left) of Fenton have spoken about the deceased drug addict who is understood to have died of an overdose in hostel room in Maidstone, Kent
Lynn Wheeldon, Fenton’s grandmother, said: ‘I’m very pleased in a one sense, but on the other hand it’s the easy way out. I will sleep better tonight knowing that she’s dead’
Emery, formerly of Frankley, Birmingham, was given a concurrent 12-month prison sentence after admitting gross neglect of Fenton by allowing him access to methadone.
But the seven woman, five man jury cleared her of giving the toddler methadone on two other occasions before his death in July 2013.
In a statement issued after the case, Detective Inspector Bob Sutton, who led a West Midlands Police investigation into the death, said: ‘Any child death is a tragedy.
‘Fenton Hogan should have had the rest of his live to look forward to.
Tragic: The young boy was killed just two weeks shy of his third birthday
‘Instead his short life was taken by the actions of his mother, who should have been there to safeguard and protect him.’
The officer said of Emery: ‘Her daily routine revolved around the consumption of drugs. This was to the detriment of those she had direct care for.
‘Fenton’s extended family agrees that no sentence is sufficient or will help to heal what happened to Fenton. The impact of Kelly’s actions will remain with all of the family forever.’
Blood samples taken from the child showed he had as much of the drug on his system as an adult on methadone maintenance therapy.
Emery was sentence to six years for manslaughter and 12 month concurrent for a charge of child neglect which she pleaded guilty to
And hair samples showed that, in the months before his death, he had ingested the drug on at least two other occasions.
When he opened the case, prosecutor Christopher Hotten QC told the jury: ‘That Sunday evening, she had crack and she wanted to smoke it.
‘We say she gave Fenton methadone knowing, to put colloquially, it would knock him out and enable her to do what she wanted without the interference from a fractious child that was difficult to put to sleep.’
Emery, who had pleaded guilty to a charge of causing death by gross negligence and a charge of child neglect, wept in the dock as she was jailed for six years.
Mr Justice Robin Knowles told her she had not faced a murder charge because she had no intention of killing her son.