Worcester woman left one-year-old son home alone to go out and deal drugs

Police made the shocking discovery after Karen Niblett was stopped by an officer - who knew her as a drug user - in Christchurch Road, Worcester, on November 18 last year, Wendy Miller, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court.

When searched, the 27-year-old was found to have 43 individual wraps of heroin and cocaine hidden inside the plastic shell of a Kinder egg capsule inside her bra.

The drugs had a total street value of £700, the court was told.

Then, when police searched her flat, they found £416 in cash plus weighing scales and drug paraphernalia as well as making another discovery - the one-year-old child behind a stairgate with a heavily soiled nappy and nappy rash, Mrs Miller said.

Niblett, of Lilac Avenue, Worcester, pleaded guilty to charges of possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and a separate charge of cruelty by abandonment to a child she had responsibility for.

The court heard she had previous convictions for drug offences and dishonesty and was in breach of a community order with a drug treatment requirement.

Barry Newton, defending, said Niblett was 30 weeks pregnant and she had pledged to be clean of drugs by the time her baby was born.

“Hers is an all too typical story of a long standing heroin problem and acquisitive theft to support it,” he told the court.

Niblett had been remanded in custody since the offence and being in prison while pregnant had a “devastating effect” on her, he said.

Mr Newton said she had been coerced into selling the drugs by a man who had made threats towards her.

Recorder Satinder Hunjan, said Niblett had left the child at home in an “appalling and neglected condition”.

She had a long criminal record but he accepted she had been coerced into selling drugs.

He jailed Niblett for 14 months on each of the drugs charges, to run concurrently with a further two months for the cruelty charge, making a total of 16 months.