A grieving man whose friend died from a fatal drugs overdose has been prosecuted for allowing people to smoke heroin in his Carlisle home.

Paul Russell Savage, 49, originally faced a Carlisle Crown Court trial on an allegation of possessing the class A drug with intent to supply but he admitted a lesser charge – that of allowing his home to be used for smoking the class A drug.

The prosecution agreed not to proceed with the intent to supply charge.

The court heard that Savage allowed his Lightfoot Drive home in Harraby to be used for smoking heroin on February 22. At an earlier hearing, he also admitted possessing cannabis.

Judge Peter Hughes QC said that at the time of his offence Savage was living with a woman who was well known to the courts who was caught with a small amount of heroin. He was found to have a much larger amount of the drug.

He also had associated drugs paraphernalia.

The court heard that when the offence came to light police discovered that an unspecified number of people were visiting Savage’s home for the purpose of smoking heroin.

Clare Thomas, for Savage, who came to court on crutches, said that her client suffered from osteoarthritis and was on medication for anxiety and panic attacks.

She said his relationship with his partner broke down after they were both prosecuted over the heroin use.

The barrister said: “The defendant was someone who at the time was struggling to come to terms with the death of a friend four months earlier.

“The defendant had been in the company of this friend on Christmas Eve, and then the defendant left him. Someone else then visited and supplied that person with the drugs that resulted in his death.”

Miss Thomas said the defendant had not been in court for ten years. Savage had told the Probation Service worker he had been free of drugs since March.

Judge Hughes said the sentencing hearing was an opportunity to give the defendant, who has a long history of drug problems, the help he needed.

“I am not going to sentence you today,” he told Savage.

“I appreciate you saying that you have managed to shake off heroin addiction and I hope that is true. The Probation Service will have to explore the matter further...

“I think there ought to be a full [background] report to assist the Probation Service to decide what level of intervention is appropriate. I suspect heroin misuse may not be wholly unrelated to his physical health problems.”

Savage will be sentenced on Tuesday, December 20.