A TEENAGER who helped supply the Ecstasy tablets that killed a Hampshire student was today jailed for 18 months.

James Bush, 19, was put behind bars for his part in providing the drugs that led to the death of Jack Elliott.

Not even a heartfelt character reference from Jack's brother could save Bush from prison.

Bush, a close friend of Jack, received the sentence for his part in supplying Jack and another friend with 20 pills in the week leading up to his death in February.

In a letter to the court, Tom Elliott bravely told how his brother's death had had a profound impact on Bush.

The court heard that at Jack's insistence, Bush had arranged to meet a contact who supplied them with the drugs, but that Bush had made no money out of the transaction.

Bush had admitted supplying the Ecstasy tablets at a previous hearing before Fareham magistrates.

Hugo Keith, mitigating, said: "His contribution to his friend's death will be a burden he has to carry for life."

Judge Tom Mackean, sitting at Portsmouth Crown Court, said he had no choice but to impose a custodial sentence because of Bush's part in the tragic events.

Bush, of Kitnocks Hill, Curdridge, was described as friendly, courteous, polite and keen to please by a number of character references.

The student, a former pupil at Swanmore College of Technology, hoped to pursue a career in structural engineering.

Instead he will spend at least the first part of his sentence in a young offenders' institution.

Jack Elliott, 17, died at a party at a friend's house less than a mile from his home in Gordon Road, Curdridge.

An inquest found that the promising Peter Symonds College student had the world's highest ever recorded reading of Ecstasy in his system.