Mother, 36, is found guilty of exposing her ten-week-old baby girl to harm after she was found dead with traces of cocaine in her system
A mother has been found guilty of exposing her baby daughter to harm after she who died with traces of cocaine in her body.
Shareen Mains, 36, of Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, exposed her ten-week-old to the drug and caused her to ingest it, a jury at Greenock Sheriff Court decided.
Mains woke up at 4am to feed the baby and went back to sleep. The next morning she got up to find the baby was not breathing and was unresponsive.
The girl could not be revived – and later tests showed four baby bottles in the house had traces of cocaine, while the baby also had traces of it in her body.
Mains was unanimously convicted of all four charges in a case described as 'tragic and difficult' after the baby was found 'lifeless' in her home on September 8, 2019.
Depute Prosecutor Fiscal Kirstin Brierley told the court how in the immediate aftermath of the baby's death, a police investigation found the drugs cannabis and phenazepam as well as cocaine in the house.
In her closing speech, she told the jury that baby bottles seized from the house were found with traces of cocaine when tested.
Ms Brierley said: 'We were told from the first witness, a paramedic, that the mum had said that she had got up at around 4am to feed the baby and went back to sleep. But she awoke to find the baby was not breathing and unresponsive.
Shareen Mains, 36, of Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, is pictured outside Greenock Sheriff Court
'A next door neighbour, who was a nurse, heard shouts of help at around 10.20am on September 8, 2019. She came in to help but in her experience the baby had the appearance that she was either already dead or close to the end of life.
'The baby was lifeless but the witness told the court she gave CPR and called an ambulance.'
The paramedic witness had told how she responded to a call of a cardiac arrest at the home and she arrived to find two women, one the neighbour and the other Mains, who was in a state.
She told how the baby was taken into the back of the ambulance before CPR protocols and basic life support were carried out.
Earlier in the trial the paramedic said: 'The baby had no pulse and wasn't breathing. I had asked mum for times of events to get a better picture of what had happened.
'She got up around 4am to feed the baby and went back to sleep. When she woke up the baby was not breathing or moving.'
The baby was pronounced dead a short while after arriving at Inverclyde Royal Hospital.
The depute fiscal in her closing speech also recounted the evidence of the baby's father who said she 'was perfectly healthy' when he last saw her the day before.
In the course of forensic examination in the house, five baby bottles were seized, three were found in the main bedroom and two from the kitchen.
The baby was found 'lifeless' at her home on this road in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde
Four of the bottles, two from the kitchen worktop and two from the bedroom, all contained clear liquid and tested positive for cocaine. One bottle with white liquid was found in the bedroom but later tested negative.
Several items were seized at that time, including burnt foil and polythene wraps - which were found within a plastic bag on a door handle.
A plastic bottle with a small 'self-made hole' and brown staining was also retrieved from a bag within the main bedroom of the property, described as a 'bong' by a police witness.
The jury also heard during the course of the trial that experts were unable to say for certain when the drug was ingested but the traces found in her body, 0.003 milligrams, had a seven day upper limit.
Ms Brierley added: 'This is consistent to being exposed to cocaine, but there is no way of telling what were the peak levels.'
The fiscal also pointed to the 'expert' handling by an experienced police officer three years later in 2022 to remove the liquid which was found to have an orange tinge.
This part of the evidence was disputed by the defence advocate in his closing speeches.
They argued that there could be contamination because the liquid now tinged orange was contaminated when moved from a vial to containers in the five years that followed.
Defence advocate Alistair Sloan said: 'This is a tragic and difficult case when on the September 8, 2019, Mrs Mains woke to found her daughter lifeless having last seen her alive at 4am.'
He argued that the crown had not proved Mains's guilt beyond all reasonable doubt that the cocaine was in the possession and control of the defendant.
Mr Sloan added: 'The bottle containing the white liquid that had been ingested was negative for cocaine.'
When directing the jury, Sheriff Anthony McGeehan instructed that Mains had accepted possession of cannabis and phenazepam during the trial.
He told the jury that if they accepted the crown's evidence that the accused was in possession of cocaine charge then a guilty verdict would follow for the charge of exposing her baby to harm and ingesting the cocaine.
The jury later returned a verdict of guilty to all four charges, rejecting the defence's argument.
Mains was found guilty of possessing Class B cannabis, Class C phenazepam, as well as Class A drug cocaine.
She was also found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering or injury to health and did consume or allow others to consume controlled drugs while her ten-week-old baby was present and did expose her to controlled drugs, namely cocaine, whereby she ingested cocaine.
Mains will be sentenced next month.
