AN addict who gave a batch of prescription drugs to a friend who overdosed and died has been jailed for four months.

The 34-year-old victim's distraught mother spoke yesterday of her heartache and said: "This will stay with me forever."

Graham Plant shook in the dock at Teesside Crown Court as details of the case were outlined by prosecutor Harry Hadfield.

The 42-year-old gave Claire Pearson four of five pregalin pills he had been prescribed for pain relief in November 2013.

Miss Pearson was also taking the tablets, but had run out and asked Plant if she could borrow some, as she had done before.

A combination of the pills, the heroin substitute methadone and other prescribed drugs killed the mother-of-three.

Her mother, Mary McKenna, 75, said: "I'm still in shock. I don't feel I've come to terms with it because it was so sudden.

"When I visit certain places, it brings back memories of my daughter. I feel like I want it get hold of her, but can't."

Recovering heroin addict Miss Pearson was found dead on a sofa in her home in Billingham, near Stockton, by her boyfriend.

Garry Wood, mitigating, said Plant - also on methadone - had been shunned by friends following the tragedy.

"This is not a case where the defendant has supplied these drugs on a commercial scale or for profit," he added.

Plant, of Spring Street, Stockton, admitted supplying a prescription medicine - a charge which carries a maximum of two years.

The judge, Recorder Tim Gittins, QC, told him: "Nothing this court can say or do will bring back Miss Pearson.

"I make it clear the sentence I am about to impose is not intended to reflect the worth of her life. No sentence can do that."

He added: "It is absolutely clear that Claire Pearson was a loving and much-loved young woman who will be greatly missed.

"I hope and expect that those are matters which will weigh heavily with you for the remainder of your days.

"You were not supplying for gain, monetary or otherwise. You thought you were helping out a fellow user. How wrong you were.

"Importantly, it was not a fatal dose you supplied, and ultimately and starkly it was her own voluntary decision to take that combination of medication, unaware of the consequences.

"The result of what you did assisted, contributed, to the worst consequence of taking those risks in supplying drugs to another.

"The message must go out loud and clear that sentences of imprisonment will follow for the supply of drugs, particularly when, as in this example, the potential consequences can be so dire."