Boy, 15, died after taking ‘morphine and sniffing aerosols in binge with his own MUM’
A BOY of 15 died after a drugs binge with his mum, a court has heard.
Tyler Peck was found dead by his friends at his mum’s house in Salcombe, Devon, on February 2.
Mum-of-five Holly Strawbridge, 34, had plied her teen son and his pal with morphine and prescription painkillers as they drank alcohol and sniffed aerosols together, a jury was told.
She denies two counts of supplying a Class A drug and two counts of child cruelty.
Opening the prosecution, Peter Coombe said: “You would have thought that any parent with an ounce of interest in their children’s welfare would do anything in their power to prevent a child from doing these things.
“But there she was doing it with her son and also his friend.”
Mr Coombe told the court: “Holly Strawbridge stayed with Tyler and a friend, another 15-year-old boy, in the kitchen of their home, drinking alcohol, inhaling aerosol fumes and taking a cocktail of drugs including two particularly dangerous drugs.
“They had been prescribed to her for medical reasons but that night she was simply abusing them together with the two boys.
“Tyler went to sleep in the early hours and sadly he never woke up.”
Mr Coombe said Tyler regularly took drugs and his mum “actively encouraged” him, even selling him Valium on one occasion.
He told the court the mum-of-five appeared to have “got it into her head that drinking and taking drugs were useful ways for him to cope with life”.
He added: “He had been drinking alcohol from an early age and had taken all manner of illegal drugs.”
DRUG BINGE
Mr Coombe told the court Tyler had been out with pals to a holiday home in nearby Malborough on the night before he died.
One of their dad’s had given them a lift to Strawbridge’s home at about 10.30pm.
The court heard Tyler had taken a whole or part of an MDMA tablet.
Strawbridge’s husband, Gavin, Tyler’s stepdad, and their four younger children were sleeping upstairs and unaware of what was happening.
Mr Coombe said one of the boys went to sleep and took no part in what followed.
He told the court Strawbridge sat in the kitchen sharing beer and peach schnapps with the other two teens.
He said she also gave the boys morphine and prescription painkiller, while Strawbridge and the boys also inhaled fumes from an aerosol.
He added: “He (the friend) said he was f****d up and she was pretty messed up.”
One of Tyler’s friends said the family home was known as a “good place to get hammered”.
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Mr Coombe told the court the friend said Tyler went to bed in the living room at about 2.30am and was heard snoring.
He added: “At some point after Tyler went to sleep, he died in his sleep.”
The two 15-year-olds found Tyler dead in bed at around midday later that day.
Strawbridge had denied giving either of the boys drugs in a police interview.
The court heard the 15-year-old boy did not tell police what had happened during a police interview on February 5.
However he later told his parents “Holly killed Tyler”.
The trial continues.