ECSTASY victim Jade Slack could still be alive if medical help had been sought sooner, a court has heard.

The schoolgirl died hours after overdosing on five tablets found at the home of Rebecca Hodgson on Salford Road in Galgate.

Hodgson, 21, had hidden the lethal drugs behind a teddy bear on her baby's changing mat after her boyfriend Wayne Wood left 35 pills at her house.

Manchester Crown Court heard that Hodgson and Wood, 22, of Highland Brow, Galgate, knew Jade had swallowed Ecstasy but did not get immediate medical help.

Prosecutor James Pickup QC said 'she would have probably survived' if they had.

"All they did was to put her in a shower and give her water. They tried to keep her cool and bring down her temperature." Hodgson and Wood are on trial after denying charges of manslaughter and child cruelty.

The jury heard that Jade, of Meadow Park, Galgate, and other young girls regularly went to Hodgson's home to see her baby and because they were also allowed to smoke and drink beer.

Mr Pickup said during one of Jade's visits in July last year she felt unwell and went upstairs to lie down. Shortly afterwards, she returned holding her stomach - and Hodgson realised five Ecstasy tablets were missing.

Jade's best friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said her pal admitted taking the drug before her condition rapidly deteriorated.

"It started getting worse and she was asking everyone to pick her up and kiss her."

She said Jade could not sit still and started 'getting stupid'. "She starting slapping her face and saying 'stop slapping me'."

Kim Speak, 18, was also at the house, and told the jury: "I told Becky an ambulance needed to be called because Jade was seriously ill. Becky said she would be all right and that if anything was going to happen it would already have happened.

"She seemed just as much at a loss to know what to do."

Mr Pickup said when Wood arrived he tried to contact Jade's dad but could not find him, so called her older sister Zara.

Relatives then arrived and took Jade for treatment at hospital.

At the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, her temperature was more than 40C and she was given drugs and a stomach wash but did not respond.

She died after a cardiac arrest.

The trial continues.