Tot died during parents' 24-hour booze bender after they forgot where he was

THE parents of a month-old baby who died as they went on a 24-hour Christmas booze binge have escaped prosecution.

GRIEF: Freddie’s parents Matthew Neil and Kim Smart-Neil had been drinking for 24 hours

Little Freddie was found wedged between a wall and bed in his older brother’s room on Boxing Day.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

Freddie’s parents Matthew Neil and Kim Smart-Neil, from Rydal Avenue, Blackpool, were arrested and charged with neglect and manslaughter.

But the CPS later decided to drop charges after deciding there was not enough evidence.

His parents admitted they had forgotten where they left Freddie on the night he died.

Details of the baby's shocking death have been revealed after a serious case review.

It found how his mum and alcoholic dad spent the 24 hours beforehand downing “a large quantity of alcohol” in a pub and with friends at their home in Blackpool, Lancs.

Kim, 32, last remembered attending to Freddie around 5am and her husband, a local DJ, stayed up with the baby until around 6am when their friends left.

An inquest heard that Neil, 34, who was "extremely tired and intoxicated", remembered taking Freddie to bed but could not say how he came to be in their other son Alex's room.

TRAGIC: Matthew Neil had told hospital staff he was drinking "seven pints a day"

MEMORY: Kim Smart-Neil last remembered attending to Freddie at 5am

He was woken around noon the following day - Boxing Day - by Alex crying at the stair gate with his nappy off and excrement on the floor.

Neil – who told hospital staff he was “drinking seven pints a day” – changed Alex's nappy before noticing Freddie wasn't in his basket.

After searching the house, he then found him unresponsive and partially wrapped in blankets on the floor between a wall and bed in Alex's room but neither parent could say how he got there.

The father tried CPR but the baby was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital.

Coroner Alan Wilson, who recorded an open verdict, heard that Freddie had bronchitis and it was impossible to say what exactly caused his death.

A pathologist said she believed his death was caused largely by unsafe sleeping arrangements.

Neil denied being drunk and said he remembered putting Freddie to bed in his Moses basket, but admitted he did not know how he ended up in a different room.

SHOCK: Details of the baby's shocking death have been revealed after a serious case review

Speaking after the report findings, the dad said: "It was Christmas and we both had more than we should've, but neither of us was inebriated.

"I believe I had a fit. There's no way a four-week-old baby can make it from our room into Alex's room on his own. It's a sheer impossibility.

"One of us had to have moved him but when I have a fit I can't remember half an hour before or after.

"I can't remember taking him in there, so that's the most viable explanation. It's the most sensible one."

Alex had not sought help from drug and alcohol services until after Freddie's death despite advice from his GP.

The CPS said: "We considered the criminal charge of wilful neglect and the file was carefully reviewed according to the Code for Crown Prosecutors.

"The CPS concluded, following consultation with the investigating police officers, that there was insufficient evidence to charge either person with this offence."