Toddler, 2, died in agony when he mistook plant food for a Fruit Shoot squash drink after 'his mother used HIS bedroom to grow cannabis'

Aaron Booth died 11 days after drinking the toxic liquid

The dehydrated child hadn't had a drink since the previous day

He suffered agonising internal burns and a collapsed lung



His 23-year-old mother slept with her boyfriend until lunchtime

Jury hears she had turned his room into a cannabis factory to 'make money'



A two-year-old suffered an agonising death after drinking toxic liquid his mother was using to help grow cannabis in his bedroom, a court heard yesterday.



Aaron Booth had not eaten all morning and went hunting for food and drink at lunchtime because his mother was still in bed with her boyfriend, the court was told.



He probably mistook the bottle for a children’s fruit drink.



Lauren Booth (right), pictured at Bradford Crown Court, is accused of assault, ill treatment or neglect of a young person following the death of her two-year-old son Aaron (left)



The container of PH Up had been left on a windowsill within easy reach of the inquisitive toddler in the cannabis farm that his mother had set up to make money, it was alleged.



Lauren Booth, 24, was woken by a bang and found her son had collapsed, was gasping for breath, with brown lips and clearly in pain, Bradford Crown Court heard.

He was rushed to hospital and underwent emergency surgery to remove his stomach and part of his oesophagus.



But his windpipe had also been burned away by the potassium hydroxide chemical and the internal injuries were so bad that nothing could be done.



Doctors withdrew treatment and he died on November 17, 11 days after the accident.



Tragic toddler Aaron Booth died after drinking toxic plant food meant to help his mother Lauren's cannabis grow, thinking it was a Fruit Shoot drink (right). Pictured left is a stock image of a cannabis plant



Yesterday Booth, of Huddersfield, denied wilfully assaulting, ill-treating, neglecting or abandoning her son in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury.



PH Up is used in the soil-free cultivation of plants, and drinking just two teaspoons of the corrosive substance would be fatal.



The bottle had a child-proof top and contained the warning: ‘Causes burns. Keep locked up and out of reach of children.’ Prosecutor Tom Storey said: ‘It is a clear liquid in a small, blue, plastic bottle. To a young child it looks similar to a Fruit Shoot squash drink.’



Jobless Booth was in bed with her boyfriend, Shaun Williams, at 12.45pm on November 6 last year when the tragedy happened.



Mr Storey told the jury: ‘She had failed to get up and failed to provide Aaron with food and drink, and by midday he must have been very hungry and thirsty.

The home of Lauren Booth, in Huddersfield, where toddler Aaron drank from a bottle of plant food

‘He got hold of this bottle as he searched for something to eat and drink when left to his own devices – she preferred to stay in bed.’ The mother woke up to find Aaron collapsed beside her bed.



The court heard that Williams and Booth, with Aaron in her arms, ran to a neighbour’s house to raise the alarm.



He was taken to the local general hospital and transferred for specialist treatment at Leeds General Infirmary, but the internal injuries were too serious.



Mohammad Khan, the child’s father, told officers he had smelled cannabis on access visits to the house.



Booth had told him she and Williams had been trying to make money by growing ‘skunk’.



She seemed ‘annoyed’ that social services and police were involved, stating she was ‘going to have to find somewhere else’ to grow the cannabis, the court heard.



A laptop was seized on which a file had been downloaded called ‘Cannabis Big Book of Buds’.



Mr Storey said police found a cluttered house, but Aaron’s room was ‘curiously empty’, with black curtains and an open window on a cold November night.



The trial continues.



