DRUG'S DEADLY LULLABY TO BABY

BABY Ewan McKinlay died after being given his mother's methadone to
keep him quiet, it was alleged yesterday.

Two-month-old Ewan, who had been crying constantly in the days leading
up to his death in January last year, died after he was given a lethal
amount of methadone enough to kill an adult by one or both of his
parents, police told Sydney's Westmead Coroners Court yesterday. His
mother, Julie Cicolini, 27, a former heroin addict, told police she or
her de facto, Ian McKinlay, 32, may have given Ewan the methadone dose
by mistake because they were both "half asleep" at the time. But both
parents denied administering the fatal dose, the inquest was told.

The court heard Ewan had been born with a drug addiction passed on
from his mother and had to be treated with morphine to relieve the
pain for most of his brief life.

At the time of his death in the family home at Tahmoor, in Sydney's
west, he was in excruciating pain due to a hernia and the colic he had
been suffering from for some weeks.

Ewan's grandmother, Anne McKinlay, told the inquest his parents had
been placed under enormous stress by his constant screaming and were
having trouble sleeping.

Police forensic pharmacologist Judith Pearl said the amount of
methadone found in Ewan's system was about 5ml, or an average
teaspoonful, enough to kill an adult.

Mr McKinlay and Ms Cicolini claim the last time they saw their son
alive was just after 3am on the morning of January, 24, 1998. He was
so restless and upset they brought him into their own bed. When they
next checked at 7.30am, Ewan was blue and had stopped breathing. Mr
McKinlay told police he went to the laundry of the house to wash the
doona, while Ms Cicolini took the dead baby to her local doctor's
surgery. It was not until 9am an ambulance was called.

The inquest continues.