Drugs killer jailed for three years

A 39-YEAR-OLD woman who fatally injected her friend with heroin has been jailed for three years.

Dawn Ashton, of Tennyson Street, Watersheddings, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

She was sentenced at Manchester Crown Square Crown Court on Friday.

Samantha Ann Molden (36), of Goodwin Court, Chadderton, was found dead in her home in March, 2007.

Samantha had suffered from psychiatric illness for a long time making her dependant on family and friends including Ashton who had been her friend for 15 years.

In June, 2006, Ashton moved into Samantha’s flat and later became her official carer.

Ashton also had a long history of drug abuse and started to use heroin and crack cocaine while in the flat.

Ashton started to take responsibility for Samantha’s money receiving a carers allowance on her behalf.

But she took advantage by spending the money which led to them regularly falling out.

In early 2007, Samantha started to use heroin at the insistence of Ashton.

On March 22, 2007, Samantha told friends she was going to end her friendship with Ashton but was later found on the floor in her flat at 3.45pm.

Later that evening, Ashton was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Tests showed she had taken heroin and cocaine, and a needle found at her house contained both heroin and Samantha’s DNA.

Police inquiries established that Ashton had injected a fatal amount of heroin into Samantha’s blood stream.