A MOTHER who allowed her seven-year-old daughter to attend drug parties in their home has admitted a charge of child cruelty.

The woman told police that the girl was regularly present when up to eight people were smoking heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis.

It went on for two years and forensic scientists found heroin traces in the

youngster's hair.

The 34-year-old mother from Hartlepool, Teesside, was later charged with

supplying heroin to her between March 2004 and March last year.

She denied it when she was due to stand trial yesterday at Teesside Crown Court.

Her daughter was due to be the chief prosecution witness but refused to travel to court. She now lives with an aunt who is her legal guardian.

The aunt told the judge: "She won't come to court, and she has begged me not to make her do it.

"She trusts me and I don't want to destroy that trust. Things have moved on."

Judge Les Spittle assured her: "Don't be frightened, nothing is going to happen to you.

"It's important that the interests of the child are paramount."

Prosecutor Jolyon Perks told the judge: "The welfare of the child in this case, even as the principal prosecution witness, is of paramount importance, and having taken careful regard to the proposition put this morning by the legal guardian the Crown have now considered the position of whether they would rely on the evidence of her at trial.

"It's the Crown's considered view that she should not be called, and accordingly in due course the Crown would not be seeking trial on the count of supplying."

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty instead to a fresh charge of child cruelty over the same period.

Mr Perks said that when the mother was interviewed at length on August 21 last year she had been a heroin addict for ten years.

He added: "She not only indicated that she used the drug in the presence of the child, but she had frequently used the drug in the presence of the child, and she indicated that others maybe seven or eight drug users had been in her address and she allowed them with herself to smoke heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis, traces having been found in the hair of the child, and she knew she was wrong to expose the child to that risk."

Anne Zimbler, defending, said that it had always been the mother's case that the child was never given drugs.

The woman had spent 32 days on remand for the child drug charge, and she is currently in jail for affray with a hypodermic syringe and shoplifting.

She was remanded in custody until next month for sentence.