Disturbing pictures show toddler playing on slide next to ‘sleeping homeless men surrounded by crack pipes’
The boy’s mum took the pictures as a warning and said there were already cannabis joints littered around the area by 11am
THIS is the jaw dropping moment a toddler plays alongside four men ‘out cold’ huddled beside a suspected drug pipe in his local park.
Disgusted mum Mandy Dickson took her little boy Devon to the playground but was shocked to find the group in an apparent drug induced stupor.
Little Devon – who is not yet two-years-old – even accidentally kicked what appeared to be bottle used for smoking drugs.
As he ran towards the slide his foot got caught in what Mandy initially assumed what a drinks bottle – it was only afterwards she saw the pipes sticking out of it.
Mandy, 35, said there were already cannabis joints littered around the area by 11am when she visited Green Grosvenor Park, Salford.
The full time mum took the pictures to warn others - but also to highlight the problem in the local area.
She told the Manchester Evening News said: “Devon ran towards the roundabout and I noticed at the climbing frame there were four men lying around with a load of bags.
"At first I thought they were homeless and I thought I’ll give them a fiver so they can get a brew.
"But as we got closer I noticed three had their eyes closed and one had his eyes open, just staring blankly.”
related stories
The pictures show one man huddled under a climbing frame with an apparent drug pipe at his side.
Three others appear to be out cold as innocent tot Devon plays just yards away.
Salford council say they have launched an investigation into the incident.
Furious mum-of-six Mandy – whose elder son Joseph, five, goes to school just 50 yards from the park – added: “I was so shocked I nearly fell through the floor. I was so angry, I just started shouting, ‘How dare you come on here with drugs when little kids are playing?!’.
"They were so out of it they didn’t even acknowledge me. There were empty little bags for God-knows-what and joint tips all over the park.”
Concerned Mandy phoned her son’s primary school to warn them and called 101 to tell police.
Mandy said: “I always take my kids on that park and I’ve never seen anything like that before. My little boy goes to that school and a lot of kids go to that park after school.”
Graham Stringer, MP for Broughton and Blackley, said the images were “extremely disturbing”.
He added: "Those men should not be on that park and the police should be called to make sure those men are moved.
"Manchester and Salford have places where homeless, single men - if they are homeless - can go.”
Police attended the playground but they could not find the men or a drug pipe.
A spokesman said: "GMP have now issued a dispersal order which gives officers the power to ban antisocial individuals from the area for 24 hours."