A MAN living in a homeless hostel died after being given a bowl of the heroin substitute methadone, a court heard.

The body of Joseph Patrick James Smyth was found the next day in his room at the Roselodge hostel, in Yarm Road, Stockton.

Claire Winter, of Embledon Walk, Stockton, denies supplying the 29-year-old with the class A drug in March last year.

David Brooke, prosecuting, described the victim as a naive user of methadone, prescribed by doctors to wean addicts off heroin, but whichcan be fatal if mixed with alcohol. He told Teesside Crown Court how Mr Smyth became aggressive when drunk.

In the hours prior to his death he had been drinking in the pub and was said to be depressed. He said that on Mr Smyth's return he had punched a hostel door and demanded methadone from Ms Winter, 24. She initially refused, but then poured the drug from a bottle into a bowl, which he then drank.

Mother-of-three Ann Curtis, who was living in the hostel at the time, said: "He was demanding that he wanted some, and Claire offered it to him."

The jury was told it had to decide whether Ms Winter supplied the drug to Mr Smyth, and whether or not it had caused his death was immaterial.

Peter Makepeace, for Ms Winter, accused one of the prosecution witnesses, Lee Dunn, of telling a "pack of lies".

The court heard how Dunn, who was serving a jail sentence for burglary, had changed the account he gave to police, having told them initially that the defendant was not responsible for giving Mr Smyth the drug.

The trial continues.

l Mr Smyth's former girlfriend, Ann Mann, 21, of Stockton, has admitted a charge of supplying him with methadone and awaits sentence.