A schoolgirl who died from a drug overdose on Boxing Day may have shared a bottle of methadone at a Christmas party, it was claimed yesterday. Kerry-Ann Kirk, 15, who is thought to have had no previous experience of drugs, was found dead in a friend's home in Coatbridge, Lanarks. A police source said: "It would seem a group of teenagers were experimenting with a bottle of prescribed methadone during the party. Tragically, it would appear that, later that night, Kerry-Ann and another teenager drank the rest of the bottle." [continues 349 words]
A drug addict mother whose three-year-old son died after drinking her methadone was put on probation yesterday. Melainy Lynch, 26, admitted cruelty to her son who was found dead on the settee next to his crying mother at their home in Dewsbury, west Yorks. The boy, Isaac, had drunk the methadone which had been prescribed to his mother who was trying to cure an addiction to heroin, Leeds Crown Court was told. Lynch, who was pregnant and clinically depressed at the time, had left the cap off the bottle and fallen asleep. The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Brian Walsh QC, told her: "This was a little boy who, despite the desperately unhappy and unsatisfactory conditions in which you were living, you brought up well. [continues 66 words]
MICHAEL ASHCROFT, The Embattled Tory Treasurer, Last Night Fought Back Against A Growing Tide Of Allegations About His Business Dealings In Central America By Launching A Libel Action To Clear His Name. His decision to sue came after a Labour MP used House of Commons privilege to allege that his name was linked to an investigation into drug trafficking by United States authorities. For the past two weeks, Mr Ashcroft, a billionaire who has given pounds 3 million to the Conservative Party, has faced a daily barrage of damaging accusations about his interests in Belize. [continues 706 words]
While one grieving mother describes the awful death of a daughter after taking ecstasy, another tells SANDRA LAVILLE how she turned detective to track down the schoolyard pusher who had terrorised and ensnared her son SITTING in the living room of her house, Elaine Gair stares blankly at a collection of photographs. They portray her daughter Anita variously as a baby, on the day she first wore her school uniform, by the tree during a happy family Christmas, playing the fool with her friends and relaxing on a variety of sunshine holidays - evolving gradually but unmistakably from a girl into a vivacious young woman. [continues 1706 words]
