A GRIEF-STRICKEN Winsford mum is hoping that the man who is alleged to have supplied her son with a lethal dose of methadone will be jailed for life.

Mother-of-seven Pat Curzon, of Walnut Drive, Wharton, has always believed that her 21-year-old son Martin was murdered after consuming a drink spiked with the heroin substitute.

And now that a 28-year-old man from Newton-le-Willows has been charged with supplying methadone to Martin, and has been bailed to appear in court on March 11, she has vowed to fight for justice.

She said: "For what he has put us through I hope he gets sent down for life. He should be done for murder - a life for a life.

"Martin was only a kid, he hadn't even started life yet. My children should be burying me, I never thought I would live to see the day I buried one of my kids."

Martin, who died in November last year on the way home from bonfire night celebrations at a fairground in Warrington, was a former pupil of Verdin High School.

He was a fairground worker but had taken the night off to enjoy the evening with his family.

Pat recalled the tragic night: "When we left he was fine, drinking and enjoying himself with his mates.

"He went home with his brother Colin in the car and everybody just thought he was sleeping on the way back, they had the music turned up loud. But he had stopped breathing.

"He was dead on arrival at Leighton Hospital.

"No-one had seen Martin take the stuff and that is why I believe it was slipped into his drink.

"I admit Martin was an alcoholic but he would never have taken drugs. I will never believe he took the methodone purposely.

"He was found to have about 5.7mg of methadone in his body, whoever gave him it must have known it would kill him because he had also been drinking.

"I found out later that methadone stops the heart and the other organs and that is probably what happened to Martin - he just fell asleep and drifted away."

She added: "Martin had such a good sense of humour. He was just a laugh and once you met him, you never forgot him. He shined.

"The hurt and hatred I have for the person who did this will never go away."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.