A FATHER has been jailed for failing to seek urgent medical attention for his toddler son after the boy took his drugs.

The 21-month-old could have been 15 minutes from death when he was finally seen by doctors, a court heard yesterday.

Recovering heroin addict Michael Gatenby, from Stockton, was locked up for 15 months after he admitted child cruelty.

Judge Peter Armstrong told the 30-year-old: “Had this been fatal, you would have been looking at a much longer sentence. This was serious negligence and for that reason it is an offence so serious that only custody can be justified for it.”

Teesside Crown Court heard how the boy drank from an open bottle of methadone, which had been left lying around last October.

Father-of-three Gatenby had been prescribed the heroin substitute and was alone with the toddler at the family home at the time.

He later told police that he saw liquid on the child’s clothes and bedding, but checked and did not think he had drunk any.

Sarah Mallett, prosecuting, said he claimed did not tell his wife, Katrina, “because she would have kicked off with him”.

Instead, Gatenby took the boy to join the rest of his family at a party, where he was running about and kicking balloons.

The boy became “unresponsive and lifeless” and his father finally revealed that he may have ingested methadone.

At hospital – two hours after the alarm should have been raised – he was given medication to counter the drugs.

A doctor said the child could have died if there had been an additional delay of as little as 15 minutes, Miss Mallett said.

Duncan McReddie, mitigating, said: “Mr Gatenby is still reminded of the fear he felt when he learnt it could have been fatal.

“He realises how ill-advised it was not seeking medical treatment. He understands he put his son through an ordeal.

“He hoped against hope at that point that there would be no ill-effects.

“There is little I can say to articulate the regret, sorrow and shame that Mr Gatenby feels.

“This act of negligence has effectively destroyed a longstanding marriage and Mr Gatenby is suffering emotional turmoil.”

Judge Armstrong told Gatenby, of Raglan Close: “I accept you may well have panicked, but that’s no excuse for not seeking medical attention straight away.

“I think you put your own needs before his at that time.”