A MUM whose children drowned in a bath in Alresford more than 15 years ago has been sent to prison after breaching a suspended sentence.

In 1999 Lyn Brownsea, 37, slipped and fell while taking care of three-year-old Natasha Russell and 18-month-old Abigail Brownsea while they were being washed.

She was knocked out and after regaining consciousness discovered they had drowned in the bath and ran screaming into the street.

Winchester Crown Court heard that after the incident she spiralled into the depths of a heroin addiction and Judge Jane Miller described the situation as “tragic”.

At the hearing on July 25, 2014, Judge Miller said: “I have read of the tragic events in your life and it was that which caused you to go into drug use.

“But you and your partner allowed your house for drug supply. Of course it was the only way you could get the drugs but that’s no excuse.”

Brownsea, of Tewkesbury Close, Popley, was given a 15-month suspended sentence last July after pleading guilty to supplying heroin and allowing her house to be used to deal drugs by dealers from London.

On Friday at Winchester Crown Court, she pleaded guilty to breaching this sentence after failing to attend drug rehabilitation appointments on three occasions and was given a six-month custodial sentence.

An inquest into the deaths heard that after she ran from her flat in Windsor Road, Alresford, passers-by tried in vain to revive the girls. Accidental death verdicts were recorded.

She told the inquest: “I think I slipped on the floor and hit my head on the edge of the bath. Abigail might have slipped and Natasha tried to help her, or she had tried to get out. I don’t know.”