A mother who gave her baby daughter methadone to stop her from crying has been jailed for 15 years.

Drug-addict Tanja Lakic Mahud was found unconscious at home with her eight-month-old daughter Anja lying dead nearby.

She was sentenced in December but took her case to the Court of Appeal in Serbian capital, Belgrade.

Tanja Lakic Mahud was jailed for 15 years for the murder of her eight-month-old daughter Anja (Picture: CEN)

She told the court that she had given her baby a large dose of the heroin substitute because the baby wouldn’t stop crying.


Mahud was later found unconscious by a family member who discovered Anja’s body on the balcony of the home, covered in plastic bags.

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The 38-year-old was convicted of murder over the September 2015 incident.



Mahud had previously told the court her baby died from poisoning after breastfeeding because she was a drug addict.

She later admitted giving the methadone to a crying Anja, adding ‘that doesn’t mean I wanted to kill her. I am a good mother.’

Mahud said she gave her daughter the heroine substitute methadone to stop her crying (Picture: CEN)

Defence lawyers told the Court of Appeal that Mahud was in ‘a condition of significantly reduced accountability’ when her baby died.

The appeal court judges upheld the murder conviction and jailed Mahud for 15 years.

What is methadone? According to FRANK, methadone is a synthetic opiate manufactured for use as a painkiller and as substitute for heroin in the treatment of heroin addiction. It has similar effects to heroin but doesn’t deliver the same degree of buzz or high as heroin. Opiates are sedative drugs that depress the nervous system. They slow down body functioning and reduce physical and psychological pain. A patient who is addicted to heroin will often be prescribed methadone to take instead of heroin and the dose of methadone is gradually reduced over time. This means that the patient can give up heroin avoiding acute withdrawal symptoms. The key effects of methadone include: Reducing physical and psychological pain

Feelings of warmth, relaxation and detachment Overdoses of methadone can lead to coma or death from respiratory failure