Toddler taken into care after pair found passed out in car with child, drugs
A child has been taken into care after police allegedly found the couple supervising them passed out in a car in Penrith with drugs nearby.
A 34-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man were found in the car in a carpark on Tench Avenue at about 11.45pm on Wednesday, police said.
A 15-month old girl was found in the back seat, while police allegedly also found synthetic cannabis and drug paraphernalia in the vehicle.
The child was taken to Nepean Hospital for precautionary checks while the adults were arrested and taken to the Penrith Police Station.
They have been charged with possessing a prohibited drug and child neglect. They will face court on Monday.
The child has been placed in the hands of Family and Community Services.
The case has shades of a similar story in the US several weeks ago when the local police revealed photos of an unconscious couple in a vehicle with a young child strapped into the back seat.
City of East Liverpool in Ohio, US, released the images of James Acord and the child’s grandmother Rhonda Pasek in what it said was an effort to highlight the state’s problem with heroin.
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“We are well aware that some may be offended by these images and for that we are truly sorry, but it is time that the non drug using public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis,” it says in the caption accompanying the photos.
“The poison known as heroin has taken a strong grip on many communities not just ours, the difference is we are willing to fight this problem until it’s gone and if that means we offend a few people along the way we are prepared to deal with that.”
The photo was taken by a police officer who found the pair and their child.
When the officer approached the vehicle, he noticed that the driver, identified as 47-year-old James Acord, appeared intoxicated. His head was bobbing back and forth, and his speech was almost unintelligible.
Acord told the officer that he was driving 50-year-old Rhonda Pasek to a hospital. The woman was slumped over in the front passenger seat.
Paramedics were called to treat both for heroin overdoses.
In Lawrence, New Hampshire, yet another case of drugged parenting caused a viral outrage when a mother was pictured on the floor of a supermarket with her child trying to wake her up.
A staff member at a dollar store filmed the distraught child shaking her mother after a suspected overdose.
Lawrence Police captain Roy Vasque has described the incident as one of the worst aspects of drug addiction.
"To put a child in such a situation shows how strong the addiction is," Vasque said previously.
"It's definitely common for children to act in this way, and we have seen this before."
