A GRIEVING care home worker was forced to return to work early after her husband died because bosses did not give her compassionate leave, a court heard.

Marion Dixon was distraught after husband Peter died last year, but had to return to the home after the funeral.

Mrs Dixon and her boss, Christina Hooper, who owns The Hollies residential home, in Norton, near Stockton, are both on trial at Teesside Crown Court, accused of the manslaughter of Frank Hutchison, 67.

Mr Hutchison died in hospital six weeks after he was mistakenly given another resident's medication by Mrs Dixon, while she worked alone on a night shift.

Yesterday, Mrs Dixon's defence barrister, Thomas Bayliss QC, said that when she returned to work, she was still very distressed.

He said: "She had to take two weeks of her holiday after her husband died, which was all she had owing to her at that point.

"She had children at home -she had to support the family.

"As a widow, she would be anxious to get back because the two weeks' holiday entitlement had been used."

He said there was a two-week delay with the funeral because there had to be a post-mortem examination into her husband's sudden death.

He said: "The funeral was on the 15th (of February 2006) and she went back to work pretty much straight after that.

"Marion Dixon made a mistake with the medication. It was human error and it had tragic consequences at the end of a nightshift, when she was tired, and she had come back to work possibly too early."

Mrs Dixon, 53, of Lumley Road, Billingham, and Ms Hooper, also 53, of Pauls Green, Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham, deny manslaughter by gross negligence.