A mother who admitted killing her 18-month-old daughter through gross negligence walked free from court today.

Fiona Milson, 33, of Malton, North Yorkshire, was given a two year community rehabilitation order after the court heard the baby girl had ingested her mother's methadone on the night of March 10, 2004.

Milson was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court today after earlier pleading guilty to manslaughter through gross negligence for failing to protect her daughter Sadie from her medication.

On the evening of March 10 Sadie's grandmother Sylvia went out to stay with her boyfriend, leaving Sadie alone with her mother at the house in Almondtree Avenue, Malton.

The court heard that an open sports bottle filled with methadone, which had been obtained illegally, had been left on a table in the house. The court was told that the baby girl either ingested at least a teaspoon of methadone from this bottle, or obtained it from the bottles Milson had obtained on prescription, which had child-resistant, but not child-proof, bottles. In a letter read out in court, Milson said: ''I will never ever forgive myself for being so stupid and irresponsible for letting her come in contact with my medication.

''I know I'm responsible for her death. I will always blame myself, torture myself.

''No matter how long I'm sent to prison for, I will be serving a life sentence in my head.

''I will never forget how she looked that morning. Hopefully one day I will be able to look at photos of my girl, but at the moment that is too painful.

''I made one tragic mistake and I will live with this for the rest of my life. It may not seem like it but I am a good, responsible mother.''

Tests on strands of Sadie's hair also showed traces of methadone which the court heard could either have been ingested on previous occasions, or could have been absorbed through external contamination, for example from her mother's sweat.

Nicholas Campbell, prosecuting, said: ''Sadie's birth was the catalyst for the defendant beginning to put her life in order again.''

Sadie's father had ''little or no contact'' with her and Milson started seeing a former boyfriend Stuart Davidson before moving in with him.

She enrolled with the Compass clinic in York for support fighting her addiction and was doing well, but from October 2003 her contact with the clinic became less frequent and her family held concerns about her progress.

As the situation deteriorated, Milson started spending a couple of nights each week at her mother's house until, around two weeks before the death, she moved in with her permanently.

The day before Sadie's death, Milson, who suffered from depression and anxiety, told her sister Emma: ''If it wasn't for Sadie, I would kill myself.''

Later that evening, Milson put Sadie to bed at around 9pm and cuddled her until she fell to sleep, unaware that anything was wrong. An hour later, she went to bed herself.

When she woke the next morning, the court heard the baby was ''extremely cold and appeared dead''.

Milson called 999 and Sadie was later pronounced dead in the back of the ambulance.

Her cause of death was not known until the results of toxicology tests a week later.

Referring to the sports bottle of methadone in police interviews, Milson said: ''I know I should have put it in a secure bottle but I thought with it being on the table she couldn't get to it.''

In mitigation, Geoffrey Marson QC, said: ''The tragedy of this case does not require further punishment, it does require further assistance. ''She was not a selfish, uncaring mother. The evidence, by and large, is all the other way.''

Mr Marson said Milson accepted Sadie must have had access to some of her methadone, which he described as ''sweet, syrupy and attractive therefore to small children who are able to open child-resistant bottles.''

The court also heard that symptoms in the early stages of methadone poisoning could be mistaken for tiredness.

Mr Marson said: ''The defendant simply and reasonably thought Sadie was drifting off to sleep as she did every night.

''The defendant got into bed an hour or so later when she may well still have been alive thinking that all's well and in order.

''She woke the next morning to the appalling and dreadful sight that will live with her forever.

''She had lost the person most precious to her.''

The Recorder of Leeds, judge Norman Jones, QC, told Milson that he was sentencing her on the basis that she had ''on one occasion left your methadone in a position where the child somehow gained access to it''.

The judge said the offence was at the ''bottom of the scale of gross negligence''.

He said: ''It's going to hang over your head to the day that you die and that will be the greatest punishment.''

Milson, who is pregnant again, sat looking at the floor throughout the two hour hearing and broke into tears before thanking judge after he sentenced her.

The court heard there was a possibility she would not be allowed to keep her unborn child.

As she left court in tears with her mother and boyfriend, Milson told reporters: ''I'm glad that somebody actually believes me.''