A WOMAN who was a heroin addict before her teenage son was born was jailed for seven years yesterday for dealing and robbery.

Lynda Muir, 45, who became addicted at 19, was caught selling heroin from a bathroom window during Cleveland Police's Operation Mithril. She sold wraps of heroin to undercover officers from a house in Hartlepool.

Addicts were directed into a yard where drugs were passed through a bathroom window, said Christine Egerton, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court.

Muir was helped at the address, in Baden Street, Hartlepool, by her son, Greg, 19, who has been a heroin addict since he was 14.

She also sold the drug from a rear window at their home in Harrow Street, Hartlepool, over two and a half months, the court was told.

Police found a loaded pistol in a wardrobe, which the son said was left by a man who had lived with them.

Muir was so desperate for money to buy heroin that she robbed an 18-year-old girl of her purse at knifepoint, the court heard.

Robin Denny, defending, said that she was an object lesson of the devastation caused by heroin, but she was now free of the drug after spending nearly 12 months in prison on remand.

Alex Burns, defending Greg Muir, said he was also clear of addiction after seven months as a remand inmate.

Lynda Muir admitted 12 charges of supplying heroin in January and February last year, two of possession, robbery on June 13 last year, and possessing an offensive weapon.

Her son, who moved to Leyburn Terrace, Stockton, was sentenced to 27 months in a young offenders' institution after he pleaded guilty to two offences of being concerned in the supply of heroin, possession of a prohibited firearm and ammunition and an unrelated burglary.