A drug addict's three-year-old daughter almost swallowed heroin she found in a kitchen cupboard at the family home in Thornton Heath.

The 33-year-old widow rushed the toddler to hospital in the knowledge that she herself would be prosecuted for possession.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Croydon magistrates last week that on May 20, after smoking some heroin, she had wrapped some up and put it in the top shelf of a tall cupboard.

But her little girl climbed on to furniture and found the packet when her mother left the room.

Hamish Reid, prosecuting, said: “When she came back she discovered her three-year-old daughter had climbed up on a chair and found the drugs and put them in her mouth.”

In her defence, solicitor Margaret Frame said if it were not for the woman's quick and fearless action following the discovery, the police would never have known about the incident.

Magistrates heard how the woman cleared her daughter's mouth, frantically brushed her teeth and rushed her to Mayday Hospital's Accident & Emergency department.

Medics said there were no signs that the heroin had been ingested by the child.

Ms Frame said: “She would never have imagined her child could have got to the drugs.

“If it weren't for her actions, the authorities would never have known it had happened.”

Mr Reid said the woman, who was arrested, charged with possession of drugs and causing unnecessary suffering to a child, fully admitted her actions and was extremely distressed.

Because she pleaded guilty Mr Reid dropped the second charge when the case came to court, and he complimented her co-operation with the police.

The woman was treated at the Oaks Resource Centre, London Road, Thornton Heath, for a non-intravenous heroin addiction. Her husband died from a heroin overdose in August 1999.

Magistrates said they would favour supervision over a fine, but delayed sentencing her pending reports.