A crack-addict mother whose baby drowned in the bath while she was out buying drugs has been jailed for six years.
Finola Cash, 32, was visited by Harrow Social Services just hours before her 11-month-old son Ricky died, a court has heard.
Ricky was submerged when his bath seat fell in to the water while his mother was outside their hotel bedsit in Edgware, north London, meeting her dealer, the Old Bailey heard.
He died a month later in September 2014 in a children's hospice after suffering brain damage.
Doctors found he had crack cocaine in his blood as a result of either passive smoking or contamination from a surface or finger.
He was also suffering from a severe nappy rash caused by neglect to change soiled nappies.
Cash pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was today sentenced to six years, of which Judge Charles Wide said she is expected to serve half on licence.
Cash, who is from the travelling community, was known to social services because of her history of drug abuse and domestic violence and had been moved in to the hotel so social services could closely supervise the family, the prosecution said.
Tests on her blood and hair revealed she had taken crack cocaine in the 12 hours before Ricky drowned and had been a user of heroin and methadone for the previous nine months.
Judge Charles Wide said: "You will have to live with the fact that you're responsible for this little baby's death for the rest of your life I have no doubt that will be a burden to you but responsible for Ricky's death you are.
"You were grossly negligent. This was not the result of momentary inattention, this was the culmination of the continual failure to care for him.
"You repeatedly put your own preoccupations above the interests of your child. You were more concerned with receiving your consignment of drugs than looking after your child. That afternoon you were under the influence of drugs."
