Lorraine Kelly: Why was poor Poppy Widdison left to die with this pair of hideous drug addicts?

ONCE again, an innocent child has been let down by the “system”.

Four-year-old Poppy Widdison was born addicted to drugs because the woman who gave birth to her – I can’t bring myself to call her the child’s mother – was hooked on heroin.

Social workers in Grimsby were so concerned they met with Michala Pyke when she was pregnant with Poppy in 2009, but decided the baby could be left safely with her.

The poor little mite was actually born an addict and had to go through withdrawal symptoms when she was just days old.

Michala Pyke and her dealer boyfriend John Rytting would give the little girl drugs to sedate her so they didn’t have to take care of her and could indulge in sex and taking heroin and other illegal substances.

Poppy died after they gave her an overdose and her sad and short life was laid bare in court this week.

The judge declared that Poppy’s life was “tragic from the moment she was conceived until the moment she died”.

He sentenced Pyke and Rytting to 13 years each in prison, presumably the maximum sentence he could impose, but I think they deserve to be locked up for the rest of their miserable lives.

They should never have been in charge of a goldfish, never mind a vulnerable little girl. They knew exactly what they were doing when they plied her with drugs that they laughingly told her were “smarties”.

The little girl was subjected to physical and emotional cruelty before she collapsed and died.

Poppy was visited three times by social workers – the last visit just six months before her death – but no action was taken to remove her from what was a drug dealer’s den.

It’s very easy to point the finger at the social services, but we all know they are understaffed, overworked and underpaid. We only ever hear of the tragedies and not the good work being done.

However, clearly mistakes were made and Poppy should never have been left in the care of these two hideous criminals.

She was let down by those who should have been looking out for her and once again this illustrates how communities have become badly fractured and people are often frightened to get involved and report their concerns to the police or authorities.

These sorts of heartbreaking cases always make me think of childless individuals or couples who would have given little Poppy the life she deserved. She would have been loved and looked after and given a happy childhood.

Instead she died in squalor and covered in bruises before her fifth birthday. We have had the usual assurances that lessons will be learned and this must never happen again, but then things carry on as usual and more little kids die. It would make you weep.