A 40-year-old man who supplied heroin to his son the day before the young man died in a car crash has been spared a prison sentence.

Shaun Packer, himself a heroin addict, was sentenced to an 18-month Drug Treatment and Testing Order after being told he had failed his son and “contributed substantially" to his death.

But Judge Michael Lawson QC added that this was not a time for revenge but for giving Packer the chance to change his lifestyle and fully face up to his responsibilities.

The judge told Packer and relatives sitting in the public gallery: “Your son Danny had had a bad patch but was getting through that and beginning to study for his GCSEs for a brighter future.

“And you, his father, were too bound up in your own drug addiction to provide him with the support that sons are entitled to expect. Instead, you did exactly the opposite. You supplied him on three occasions and in short succession with the same drug that was destroying your life.

“You now accept that through that combination of supplying him with heroin and providing him with an inadequate and dangerous car you contributed substantially to his death. That, at least, is a mitigating factor.”

Judge Lawson also addressed relatives sitting in the public gallery, including Danny’s mother, asking for time to see whether Packer could change. He said: “No sentence will bring him back or undo the damage...I hope that those who are angry will understand and try to look at a longer term position than just today and there desire for some revenge.”

Packer, of Victoria Street, Sheerness, admitted three charges of supplying a class A drug to heroin addict Danny in November 2003.

Maidstone Crown Court heard at an earlier hearing that the teenager had been living with his aunt until about two weeks before his death. He then stayed with his father in Victoria Street, Sheerness.

Stephen Chippeck, prosecuting, said Danny began to ask his father to “sort him out” and get him drugs. On three consecutive days in November, Packer obtained drugs, “cooked” them and gave them to his son.

On November 25 at 11.15pm, Danny was killed in a car he was driving.

"I should make it clear that it is not the Crown's case that there is any nexus between the drugs he was given and what happened in the car," said the prosecutor.

The only dispute between the prosecution and defence, he said, was the question of how Danny was given the drugs.

The evidence was that Packer injected Danny, but the allegation was denied. "The point is, the charge is supply of a controlled drug," said Mr Chippeck.

When arrested in March last year, Packer denied supplying drugs and knowing that his son had been using heroin.

Scott Ivall, defending at the earlier hearing, said the circumstances were tragic. "He has lost his oldest son,” he said. Providing Danny with the drug was not something he did lightly, he said.

Mr Ivall said Packer had shown the grief he felt over the loss of his son. "Because of difficulties with Danny's mother and her friends, he was not able to attend the funeral because he didn't want there to be further difficulties at that sad event," he said.

After laying a wreath on the grave, he returned to find it had been discarded. His car had also been daubed and he had suffered personal injury.

Packer was held in custody for seven months from May 21 until December 20.

Defending at today’s hearing, Miles Haddon-Trigg, said Packer had led a chaotic lifestyle but had since voluntarily sought help for his drug addiction. “He has done all that he could do and be expected to do. The death of Danny is something he will have to deal with for the rest of his life. He understands his part in it.”

The court heard Packer was jailed for four years in October 2000 for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He was released on New Year’s Eve 2002 and was on license at the time of giving his son drugs.

Sentencing had been adjourned for a probation report. Following its recommendation for a DTTO, Judge Lawson said: “Until you are rid of that addiction I do not believe you will take full responsibility. I do not believe you will stop blaming others and other circumstances for what happens in your life until you see life in its proper colours.

But if you think a DTTO is a soft option you are very much mistaken. You will be made to confront fully your addiction…If you do not put the energy and commitment into that order you will find yourself standing in front of me again. If that order does not work then I will have to impose a sentence of imprisonment.”

He continued: “I shall meet any success with encouragement but I want to see a different man at the end of the 18 months, a real man that can say “yes, I have done wrong and I am sorry.”

Packer will return to court on May 9 for his first review hearing.