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She left Hakeem Hussain to die outside alone “gasping for air”, a court was told. The seven-year-old was fatally neglected by his addict mother Laura Heath. She was yesterday convicted of his manslaughter by way of gross negligence.

The 40-year-old had already admitted four counts of child cruelty, including failing to provide proper medical supervision and exposing Hakeem to asthma triggers, including smoke from heroin, crack cocaine and cigarettes.

Jurors were told Heath, formerly of Nechells, Birmingham, deliberately “prioritised her addiction to drugs” prior to the “needless, premature” death of Hakeem from an asthma attack on November 26, 2017.

Coventry Crown Court heard she used Hakeem’s asthma inhaler, not to ease his breathing, but as a makeshift crack pipe. Heath was said to have a £55-a-day drug habit.

On the night of his death, the mum told police, she smoked three bags of heroin, leaving her in a drug-induced sleep.

At 7.37am the next morning, she was woken by a friend who had found Hakeem dead in the garden and carried the youngster’s body inside.

Social services in Birmingham were aware of Hakeem’s awful life, and details of a child protection conference days before his death emerged at the trial.

The court heard two days before his fatal collapse, a school nurse told the meeting, “he could die at the weekend from asthma”.

Nurse Melanie Richards, as well as a family outreach worker at Hakeem’s Nechells Primary School who was also in the meeting, scored the lad’s safety as “zero” out of 10.

Neelam Ahmed, family outreach lead at the school, said: “There were no safety or protective factors and Hakeem was at significant risk of harm.”

But the meeting ended with agreement the social worker would speak to Heath on Monday – by which time Hakeem had died.

Teachers said Hakeem attended school irregularly, and was often late, dirty and wearing an unwashed uniform.

Despite living in squalor, teachers said he was “bubbly”, “bright” and a keen student, who enjoyed reading.

A serious case review into agencies’ contact with Hakeem is set to be published within weeks.

Andy Couldrick, chief executive of Birmingham Children’s Trust, which took over child social services in 2018, said there were “clear missed opportunities” in social services’ handling of the case.

Heath will be sentenced on Thursday.

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