Verdict for parents in toddler's methadone death

Two parents have been found guilty of failing to provide the necessities of life in the death of their 16-month-old daughter, who died of a methadone overdose in April of 2006.

Jonathan Hope and Lisa Guerin were both acquitted of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death.

Summer Hope died after consuming the powerful legal drug, which is used to treat addictions.

Court heard earlier in the week the father had told two officers he got his daily dose of methadone at a clinic, but spat a mouthful into a coffee cup and brought it home.

The Crown's key witness, a friend of Guerin's, testified that both parents saw Summer with an orange stain on her shirt and assumed she had ingested the drug.

But lawyers for both parents argued there was no evidence of either a coffee cup or stained clothing, and that neither knew how dangerous methadone could be.