The man who supplied Robbie Day with the ecstasy which killed him has failed to meet the terms of his suspended sentence.

Tristan Wilcox, 35, was put on the order, with a drug rehabilitation requirement, after he was found with thousands of pounds worth of cannabis.

But despite Wilcox failing to turn up for a number of appointments Judge Douglas Field ruled it was not in the public interest to activate the jail term.

Wilcox, of River Parade, Chippenham, was jailed for four months, suspended for 18 months, at Swindon Crown Court in February. But he missed numerous probation appointments and seemed 'ambivalent' about the order, the court was told.

Speaking in his own defence Wilcox said he had not turned up on the drug rehabilitation requirement because he was depressed.

"I am very sorry for my actions," he said from the dock having been produced in custody after failing to attend an earlier hearing.

"When I got this order it just got me down because I want to work."

Allowing the order to continue, with a three-week night time curfew, the judge said: "I am going to punish you for being in breach but I am going to give you a chance to get back on to the drug rehabilitation requirement because it is that problem that is behind your offending.

"I think it is in the public interest that we have a second go to try and deal with that. If that fails you will be back in front of me because I am going to reserve any future breach to myself and it means you won't get a second chance and you will go in."

Wilcox had almost £2,500 worth of cannabis stashed in his microwave oven when police searched his home early on June 2 last year.

Admitting possession with intent to supply he said he had been selling it to friends to fund his own cocaine addiction.

Police had gone to his home after Mr Day, 35, of The Firs, had collapsed outside Superdrug in Chippenham the day before having taken the drug with Wilcox. He was taken to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon but died from multiple organ failure the following day.

At an inquest into his death a statement from Wilcox was read out in which he said: "It was me who got the drugs for Robbie and I blame myself for his death. I got him the drugs but he took them of his own free will."

Robbie’s mum Elaine Barron, who lives in Pewsham, Chippenham, said: “I’m appalled, I can’t believe they haven’t activated his sentence, I can’t understand it. How many more times does he have to break the law?

“It’s disgusting. Robbie was vulnerable and he thought Tristan was his friend.”