A toddler had to be rushed to hospital, frothing at the mouth and in toxic shock, after taking an ecstasy tablet.
The youngster had picked it up off the floor after it dropped from the pocket of Scone man Daryl Burgess.
When adults returned to the room they found the boy in distress, “with pink saliva around his mouth”.
Attempts by Burgess and others to make the child sick were partially successful as an ambulance made its way to the address in Perth’s North Muirton area.
They rushed the victim to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee where he was assessed by doctors to be showing signs of toxicity.
Medics found him to be staring fixedly, while his upper limbs were rigid, though Perth Sheriff Court heard no medical intervention was required.
The boy was admitted to the high dependency unit and monitored overnight before being discharged into his mother’s care the following morning.
Burgess, 28, of Abbey Road in Scone, admitted culpably and recklessly introducing the controlled drug ecstasy into premises where children were present, causing a child to discover the tablet and ingest it to the danger of his life.
Depute Fiscal Carol Whyte told the court: “On the day before the incident, Mr Burgess had travelled to Manchester for a music event.
“During the course of that he had been offered and had accepted two pink tablets.
“He had no intention of taking the substances and had simply placed them in the pocket of his tracksuit bottoms and forgotten about them.”
She said one of the two ecstasy tablets had clearly fallen from Burgess’ pocket the following day, unbeknown to him, and been swallowed by the child.
The depute fiscal accepted that steps had been taken by the accused to rectify his mistake.
Sheriff William Wood told him: “Clearly this matter is out of the ordinary. You should have been more aware of the dangers of taking this drug into a house where there were children present.
“It was foolhardy”.
He fined Burgess £1,400.
