A DRUG addict mother admitted child cruelty yesterday after she climbed from her bedroom window to buy heroin and dropped her baby.

Police arrested Lisa Elsworth, 21, after she took her year-old daughter, Tanisha, to hospital with a grazed forehead.

Elsworth, an addict for three years, told police that her mother locked her in their home to keep her away from drugs, said David Brooke, prosecuting.

But she used to climb out of a bedroom window on to a flat roof and then down a neighbour's fence, Teesside Crown Court heard.

One night last June, she told her mother that she was craving heroin, but her mother refused to look after the baby, said Mr Brooke.

Tim Roberts, defending, said: "She took a stupid risk going out on to the roof carrying her baby.

"As a result her mother, who is clearly a competent and committed parent, has taken responsibility for her grand-daughter as well as her daughter."

He said that extra safeguards were in place and that Elsworth now had a drugs counsellor.

Elsworth, of Zetland Road, Stockton, Teesside, was given an 18-month community rehabilitation order after she pleaded guilty to child cruelty through risk.

The judge, Recorder George Moorhouse, told her: "You are very fortunate that you have a very loving and caring mother who is looking after you and your daughter."