A grandmother who was spared jail after she sold methadone to a friend whose two-year-old daughter later died from drinking the heroin substitute has been hauled back to court for breaching the conditions of her sentence.

Catherine Migliorini faced the prospect of a two-year suspended prison sentence being activated in full or part for failing to keep two appointments with the probation service.

The 53-year-old former prostitute had previously been back to court for similar breaches.

But a judge at Maidstone Crown Court decided not to jail her and instead extended her tagged curfew from six months to nine months.

The judge warned if there were any further breaches there could be no alternative to imprisonment.

Migliorini, of Old Folkestone Road, Aycliffe, supplied single mum-of-five Lucy King with regular “top-ups” of methadone over two years to supplement her own prescription.

But it was to have tragic consequences when toddler Frankie Hedgecock swallowed a 15ml dose while her mum dozed on a sofa at the family home in De Burgh Street, Dover, in June 2015.

King, 39, was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence and jailed for three-and-a-half years in April.

Judge Jeremy Carey said when Migliorini appeared for sentence for supplying Class A drugs she had “learned a bitter lesson”.

He heard she regularly sold some of her own methadone prescription for £5 for each top-up to buy alcohol.

The judge stressed he was sentencing her on the basis he could not be sure the methadone she supplied was left in a grossly negligent way in the house.

He told the mother, who uses a walking aid, she presented “a pathetic picture” with health problems, which include being diabetic.

The sentence included a curfew between 9pm and 6am and supervision by the probation service.

The court heard when Migliorini appeared to be dealt with for the latest breach that she had “an immense constellation of physical and medical problems”, which made it difficult for her to attend the probation office.

Judge Carey said: “The problem is the non-contact.

“The stark alternative is I send her to prison or I extend the curfew.”