A HEROIN addict whose toddler son died after swallowing her methadone has been jailed for two years.

Mitchell Bate had enough of the prescription drug in his body to kill an adult, a court heard yesterday.

The boy's mother, Gemma Fennelly, had hoped to be spared prison after her barrister described her as a "loving and caring parent".

But she was told by a judge that justice demanded she should be punished with custody.

Fennelly, from Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 22-month-old Mitchell by gross negligence at a hearing last month.

The 25-year-old returned to Teesside Crown Court to be sentenced yesterday, and wept in the dock as the hearing was opened.

Andrew Robertson, QC, prosecuting, said scientific tests showed Mitchell had ingested methadone "on a number of occasions quite regularly" in the months before his death.

It is not known if the toddler had access to a metal box in which the drugs were kept on a kitchen worktop, or if he often touched spillages of the liquid and licked his fingers.

Fennelly's barrister, Neil Davey, QC, described Mitchell's death as a tragic result of his parents' chaotic lifestyle, and insisted she was a caring mother and not a wicked killer.

The toddler's father, Mark Bate, was arrested and charged after Mitchell's death in September 2005, but walked free last month after prosecutors offered no evidence following Fennelly's guilty plea.

Mr Bate, 34, was also a heroin addict at the time of the tragedy, but the court heard yesterday that both parents had overcome their habits and were "different people".

Mr Davey urged the Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, to impose a suspended sentence with supervision on Fennelly, who spent almost a month on remand after her arrest in December 2005.

He told the court: "She has accepted responsibility for the death of her beloved child - not just moral responsibility but criminal responsibility - and that will be in her conscience forever.

"She has already served time in prison. One can scarcely imagine what it must have been like for her on remand at that time accused of offences for which she was doubtless labelled a child-killer. It must have been absolutely hideous."

Judge Fox told Fennelly, of Edinburgh Grove, Hartlepool: "Through your very great carelessness, which amounts in law to gross negligence, you are responsible for your infant son's death."

He added: "There is no punishment this court can or should administer which can possibly compare with the pain which you must suffer on losing your child.

"The manifest affection for your little boy was abundant, but it is an aggravating feature that your carelessness extended over months, during which time your child swallowed a highly-toxic substance on a number of occasions."

Mr Davey said: "For a mother, there can be only one feeling more intense than the joy of having a child, and that is the pain of losing it. That is the pain this defendant has carried with her since September 2005 and will carry with her until she goes to her grave."

Independent councillor for Hartlepool Stan Kaiser said the sentence given to Gemma Fennelly was "unsatisfactory" and "an example of the legal system gone wrong".

The 74-year-old said: "If the drugs were not there in the first place they couldn't have harmed anyone.

"But the drugs were there and she was responsible for the death. The sentence was unsatisfactory."

Michell's 'appalling and tragic' fate

A mother was last night starting a prison sentence after she admitted killing her toddler son. Neil Hunter looks at the case of Michell Bate.

MITCHELL BATE never really had a chance.

Born to heroin addict parents, his life was probably always destined to be grim.

But that life was cut short in September 2005 by the very drug his mother was using to wean herself off heroin.

Mitchell swallowed doses of methadone that could have killed an adult.

His mother, Gemma Fennelly, and father, Mark Bate, were described in court yesterday as loving and caring parents.

Neil Davey QC, mitigating, said the couple were trying to climb out of a hole they had dug through drug dependency.

The couple had voluntarily gone on heroin replacement treatment programmes, Fennelly taking methadone and Mr Bate a similar synthetic opiate called subutex.

The couple sought help in February 2005, and by the time Mitchell died, Fennelly had begun to self-medicate and was taking less - leaving the unused medicine in a metal storage box.

When police were called to their home following the toddler's death, they found ten open but unfinished bottles of methadone in the aluminium container.

Mr Davey told the court yesterday that many of the bottles had residue on the neck, and Mitchell may have either licked them or put his fingers in his mouth after touching spillages.

After the hearing, the detective who led the investigation into the toddler's death told how the case had been the most traumatic he had been involved in during decades of police service.

Detective Chief Inspector Gordon Lang said: "Like any other toddler, Mitchell was vulnerable, and, like all toddlers of that age, he was totally innocent.

"He should have been cherished, loved and looked after, but the amount of methadone that he had consumed would have caused serious problems to an adult user.

"Mitchell did not know what he was taking.

"This toddler needed the care, guidance and protection of loving parents. That did not happen.

"At just 22 months old, he became a victim, through no fault of his own, to the drug culture.

"It is an appalling and tragic tale which had a profound effect on the small team of officers who were involved in the investigation."