Council will respond to judge’s criticisms over mother supplying drugs to son

Children’s services director at East Sussex Council Matt Dunkley has promised to respond within two weeks to a judge’s criticisms of the authority’s practice in the case of a boy supplied with class A drugs by his mother.

In a statement, the council promised to learn from any lessons from the case of Emma Kelly, who was jailed for nine years yesterday for giving her son heroin and crack from the age of nine.

Judge Niblett, presiding, questioned social services’ failure to intervene before Kelly’s arrest last year.

Dunkley said: “All the major decisions taken to protect this child prior to him being taken into care were taken jointly with all the agencies involved, including the police.

“Clearly, however, we will urgently consider the comments made by Judge Niblett and provide a written response in 14 days.”