A DRUG dealer who stored pills in the family home where four children live was asked by a judge: "Have you ever seen a child's coffin."

Stephen Manning was facing sentence for possessing Temazepam - a psychoactive tablet for insomnia - with intent to supply, and possessing cannabis.

A court heard how police found the 29-year-old with 208 pills on his lap when they visited his home in Thornaby, near Stockton, on December 21.

Judge Sean Morris asked the cannabis-using father: "Do you want the children to follow your example? No . . . well do something about it, then."

In an unusual exchange across the court, the judge said: "You are a human being with free will. You don't have to do this. When you come out, get a grip.

"Just suppose one of those kids got at your Temazepam tablets and swallowed them. You would be following a little coffin. Have you ever seen one?"

Manning - who was in breach of a suspended sentence with unpaid work for possessing cannabis - replied: "No Your Honour, I wouldn't like it."

Prosecutor Emma Atkinson told Teesside Crown Court that police had gone to his home in Hampden Way, Thornaby, on an unrelated matter and found the drugs.

Graham Silvester, mitigating, described Manning's as "a depressing case, typical of many drug-users in this area" and said he used cannabis to "take away the stresses of life".

Mr Silvester said he dealt in Temazepam - but "not on a commercial scale of any significance" - to fund his addiction.

He told Judge Morris that the defendant had been on remand at the notorious Armley Jail in Leeds for a fortnight, and had found it a chastening experience.

"He has let down his partner, who is six months pregnant with their third child, and having a difficult pregnancy," said Mr Silvester. "There are two other youngsters in that household who he has had care for until his remand.

"He is a pleasant young man and needs to break the habit. He needs to break the cycle of use."

Judge Morris told Manning: "You have had chance after chance and you have thrown it in the court's face, and you have thrown it in your wife's face."

Manning, who admitted both charges, was jailed for ten months.