Man Jailed for Encouraging 3-Year-Old to Smoke

A UK man received 18 months in prison today for handing a 3-year-old girl a lit cigarette and encouraging her to smoke it—and inhale. He then asked a 14-year-old girl to record the event with her camera phone. In the video, the 31-year-old man can be heard laughing, “believing it to be a bit of a joke,” according to his defense attorney. “Clearly it’s not funny.”

One 16-year-old said they’d all thought it was funny at first, notes the Guardian. “She was inhaling and everything. It looked like she had smoked before. Graeme didn't tell her what to do. She just knew,” she testified. When the girl finished, she put it out in the ashtray and asked for another. "He said, ‘You’ve had enough’ and she started to cry, so he gave her another one.” (More smoking stories.)