Drug dealing mum whose baby died after ingesting M-CAT and ecstasy has jail sentence cut

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A drug dealing mother whose baby son died after ingesting M-CAT and ecstasy at her home had her jail sentence cut by appeal judges today.Amy Beck, 32, was jailed for seven years in April after three month old Olly-James Sievwright was found to have been exposed to the drugs mephedrone, known as M-CAT, and MDMA, commonly called Ecstasy.The baby boy, who was born prematurely, died on December 22 in 2019 primarily from a peritonitis infection with exposure to the Class B drug mephedrone also listed as a cause of death.Lawyers acting for Beck raised an appeal challenging the length of the prison sentence imposed on her.Lord Malcolm, sitting with Lord Matthews, at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh today quashed the sentence imposed at the High Court in Edinburgh earlier this year, branding it "excessive".A substituted a sentence of four years' imprisonment was issued.Lord Matthews said, in delivering the court's judgement: "We have come to the conclusion, in all the circumstances, it can properly be said the sentence was excessive."The appeal judges said the sentencing exercise in the case was "a very difficult one" and although Beck was involved in drug supply for almost three years she did not intend to harm children nor that her infant son should die.It was said it was clearly a tragic case which showed that the abuse of controlled drugs could have consequences far beyond those that were obvious.Olly-James was found to have ingested mephedrone and experts considered that it would have compromised his ability to deal with peritonitis.Defence counsel David Moggach argued that the sentence imposed on Beck was excessive and maintained that the trial judge had erred in assessing her level of culpability.He said it was