A DRUG abuser was given up to £800 a week by her mother to feed her addiction, a court was told.

Hazel Hill said she gave increasingly large sums to daughter Melanie Storey from insurance settlements she received after flooding and a fire at her home in Page Bank, near Spennymoor, County Durham.

Mrs Storey, who stands accused of the manslaughter of a man believed to have died from a heroin overdose, admits she was addicted to the drug herself for two years.

But she denies that she was a drug dealer, or that she administered 43-year-old Des-mond "Dessie" Johns with heroin shortly before he was found dead, slumped on a pavement near her home in Tudhoe Moor, Spennymoor, County Durham, last November 5.

Durham Crown Court has heard that sums of about £900 were found by police in raids at Mrs Storey's council home before and after the death of Mr Johns.

Mrs Storey said she found £15,000, previously hidden by her husband under floorboards in a spare bedroom at the house, while he was serving a prison sentence, last August.

Asked by defence barrister James Chadwin QC if she received financial help from any other relative, Mrs Storey revealed her mother also gave her money.

Mrs Hill told the court she reluctantly gave Mrs Storey money to buy heroin as she did not want her going shop-lifting to fund her addiction.

"It wasn't very much at first, but it got more and more," said Mrs Hill.

Mrs Storey, 31, denies manslaughter and 14 counts of supplying or possession with intent to supply drugs, plus one offence of witness intimidation.

The trial continues.