Teenager died from overdose

Administration clerk Karen Harland had never experimented with heroin before she started a relationship with known user Christopher Kenning.

When her distraught family realised the lifestyle she was slipping into, they tried to force her to come back home to be taken care of.

But Newcastle Crown Court heard how the teen insisted she wanted to live with Kenning at his mother's home in Urpeth Terrace, High Handenhold, near Stanley, County Durham, and was found dead from an overdose the next day.

Paul Sloan QC, prosecuting, said: "The decision to return to that address was one that was to cost Karen Harland her life."

Mr Sloan told the court how Karen never dabbled in heroin until she started a relationship with Kenning at Christmas 2001 and moved in with him in February last year.

The court heard how on April 11, the day of her 19th birthday, the couple had celebrated with a drink and drugs cocktail.

That evening, Karen's father, Glen, forced her back to the family's Chester-le-Street home to get her to accept medical help.

But Karen refused to stay and ended up going back to stay with Kenning in the early hours of Friday.

The court heard how the couple spent Friday drinking and taking Valium before Kenning bought £20 worth of heroin from Ian Douglass.

The couple then shared the heroin at home. Karen was dead when Kenning woke next to her the following day.

Kenning admitted supplying heroin and manslaughter. He was jailed for four years plus an extra month for failing to surrender to police when requested last year.

Douglass, of West Street, Grange Villa, also admitted supplying heroin.

His case was adjourned for a drug treatment and testing order assessment.

Defence barrister James Goss QC said although Karen was introduced to injecting heroin through her relationship with Kenning, he had never encouraged or harrassed her to take it. Judge Esmond Faulks accepted that Kenning was remorseful.