A couple from Bruges has been handed prison sentences after their toddler fell into a coma because she ingested liquid ecstasy.
A Bruges court found the couple, both aged 46, guilty of blows and injuries, citing their careless attitude toward their child, who was three years old at the time of the incident in 2018.
The woman was sentenced to six months imprisonment while her partner and the child's stepfather, was given a suspended prison sentence of 12 months.
The couple's daughter was hospitalised in a comatose state in the summer of 2018, after she returned home in a bad state from the neighbour's home, where she was being looked after.
The toddler fainted in her dining chair and spit blood, with the investigation into the facts later showing she had ingested liquid ecstasy or GHB.
The child's urine samples also revealed clear traces of cocaine, present in her system in smaller quantities than GHB, according to De Standaard.
The couple's neighbours were also convicted in the court, with a neighbour identified as ND handed a suspended one-year prison sentence and his partner, sentenced in absentia to two years effective imprisonment.
The court's decision to hand a harsher sentence to the neighbour's partner was justified by the fact that she was the user of GHB, Het Nieuwsblad reports.
The toddler, now aged 5, recovered from the incident without any permanent injuries, and has since been removed from her parent's custody, with the judge awarding €500 in provisional damages to her guardian.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
