A father who took ecstasy with his 17-year-old daughter and failed to get her medical help for more than an hour after supplying her with the class A drug has been jailed for five years and four months.
Jason Wilkes was told that although there was no suggestion that it was ever his intention to set about a course of conduct that would lead to Chloe Wilkes' death there were features of gross negligence, Maidstone Crown Court heard.
Sentencing Wilkes, 45, Judge Philip Statman said: "You will lead the rest of your life knowing that your conduct led to the death of your daughter who, in my judgment, you loved.
"That's an enormous burden for you to have to carry with you, but it is not just your burden.
"She is lost to her mother, brother and her extended family, a life tragically cut short."
Wilkes drove his daughter from their home in Ashford, Kent, to a woodland area on the edge of the town, and then to an industrial estate where he worked, in an attempt to cool her down rather than taking her to the nearest hospital which was under three miles away after she complained of feeling unwell, the court was told.
If he had sought medical help for her as soon as he realised she was unwell, hospital staff might have been able to stop her overheating, which caused her heart to stop, the court heard.
Wilkes had been due to stand trial over his daughter's death but then pleaded guilty to Chloe's manslaughter by causing her to take a noxious substance. He had previously pleaded guilty to supplying her with MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy.
Prosecutor James Mulholland QC told the court that Wilkes and his daughter had taken drugs, including ecstasy and cocaine, together at least three times before but text messages between them showed it was a regular occurrence.
Wilkes, who was seen crying in the dock, would buy the drugs and split them between himself and his daughter, who was not employed or attending college at the time of her death, he said.
On the evening of July 25 last year, Wilkes and Chloe took a gram of cocaine and a gram of MDMA between them, staying up all night, the court heard.
The following day, Wilkes bought another gram of MDMA and once his 13-year-old son, Chloe's brother, had gone to bed, father and daughter each wrapped half a gram of the drug up in a cigarette paper and swallowed it with water, "a method of ingestion called bombing", the prosecutor said.
By 1am on July 27, Chloe had started to become agitated and disorientated, Mr Mulholland said.
Wilkes first took her into the back garden of their home before loading her barefoot into the back of his car and driving her to a wooded area known as The Warren where she began talking nonsense and rambling, the court was told.
He then drove her to RK Resources on the Henwood Industrial Estate where he worked and tried to use a fan to cool her down.
Wilkes eventually called 999 at 2.01am, telling the operator his daughter was not breathing and that she did not have a pulse. She died later that day.
A toxicology report showed that Chloe had 3.1mg of MDMA per litre in her blood, enough to prove fatal. Cocaine was also found in her blood.
