A COUPLE accused of killing their toddler son gave him synthetic heroin for months before he died, a court heard yesterday.

It was alleged that Gemma Fennelly and Mark Bate fed 22-month-old Mitchell Bate lethal doses of methadone to help him sleep.

A jury was told that the couple may not have acted out of wickedness, but perhaps for selfish reasons - "to get some peace and quiet".

The prosecution alleges that the addict parents fed Mitchell the heroin substitute over five months until he eventually died of an overdose last September.

During the first day of evidence at Teesside Crown Court, the jury heard that Miss Fennelly and Mr Bate were taking prescribed heroin substitutes in a bid to beat their addictions last year.

Andrew Robertson QC, prosecuting, said the Hartlepool couple regularly fed the toddler doses of the drug to make him sleep and give them some rest.

The jury heard the baby ingested methadone regularly and it was alleged that the parents had given the drug to the child.

Traces of heroin and cocaine were also found in hair samples taken from the youngster after his death on September 17.

Mr Bate, 34, and Miss Fennelly, 24, deny manslaughter.

Mr Robertson told the court yesterday that both parents were receiving prescription drugs in an attempt to reduce their heroin dependency.

He said: "For five months before he died, Mitchell must have repeatedly been ingesting methadone - and in not insignificant amounts.

"The sad truth is, that there can be only one possible explanation.

"Mitchell had been deliberately fed the methadone by one or both of these defendants in the months leading up to the fatal overdose."

Mr Robertson told the jury of seven men and five women: "You could ask yourself why they would do such a thing.

"The answer may be simple - methadone makes you drowsy and helps children sleep through, giving their parents a quiet night.

"The prosecution does not suggest what they did was born out of wickedness.

"It was born both of selfishness on their part and gross disregard of the risks involved."

The court heard that the addicted parents kept their prescribed medication in a locked metal box on a kitchen shelf that Mitchell would barely have been able to reach.

Mr Robertson said: "It would be very difficult for a young child, 22-months-old, to open it even once, but the scientific evidence shows that the young child had regular doses over a protracted period."

He told the court that samples showed he had 0.21 microgrammes of methadone in a millilitre of blood.

Mr Robertson said: "Although it is impossible to be completely accurate about the size of the doses over that period, we are talking about proper measurable quantities, rather than a mere smidgen one might get from licking one's fingers."

Mr Bate, of Rodney Street, and Miss Fennelly, now of Edinburgh Grove, face joint charges of manslaughter and individual charges of causing or allowing the death of a child.

The couple also face alternative charges of man-slaughter by an unlawful act - namely administering a dose of methadone, or manslaughter by gross negligence, by allowing a child access to a fatal dose of methadone.

The trial, which is expected to end next week, continues today