Warrants issued in drugs death inquest

Rebecca Harris and Christopher Lee missed the inquest of 22-year-old Gareth Sully on Wednesday.

Coroner Alan Craze heard evidence from all the other witnesses, apart from Detective Inspector Mark Ling, before adjourning. He will conclude the inquest at a date yet to be set when he will hear the evidence of Mr Lee, Ms Harris and Det Insp Ling and record a verdict.

A warrant for Mr Lee and Ms Harris' arrest will be issued when a date for the inquest is set.

Mr Sully died at a flat in Manor Road in the early hours of April 17 after he took an overdose of heroin. It is not clear whether he injected himself with the drug, or if another person did.

He had been out of prison for five weeks, after serving two years of a three year sentence for robbery. On the day before his death, he had worked with his father's partner in his tree surgery business, Raymond Mitchell.

Later that Friday, he went to a party at his friend John Larkin's then flat in Queens Road.

Ms Harris, a known drug user, arrived at about 11pm with a swollen face, claiming she had been hit by her boyfriend, Christopher Lee.

Mr Sully's friend Andrew Larkin said she brought a bag of amytriptolin pills which she handed out, although it is unclear whether Mr Sully took one. Amytriptolin is a painkiller used by stroke victims.

After staying a short while, Mr Lee went out of the party with Mr Sully to a flat in Manor Road. The flat belonged to Iain Kerr, who is serving time in Nottingham Prison and whose evidence was read out by the coroner.

Mr Kerr said to police after the death: "Becky came in and says she is with her brother. He went into the kitchen and came out with a needle hanging out of his arm."

Mr Kerr said Mr Sully passed out on the floor. He added: "It was a drag because I had to step over him to get into the kitchen."

Mr Kerr said Mr Lee had hidden syringes in the flat.

The following morning, on April 17, two people, a man and a woman, went into New Carmiles taxi office on Manor Road asking to use a phone. Owner Iraj Torab said they looked like "druggies". He went to the flat where they had been and there was a young lad lying there on the ground with a duvet on him. He was blue. Then the taxi they had ordered arrived and they got in. I tried to keep them there," he said.

"The man said he was going down town to find his mother."

Mr Torab called the police and the ambulance and they arrived at 11.40am. The cab driver was told to bring the duo back but they got out of the car at Linton Gardens and didn't come back.

Mr Torab added: "The man said to me he had died at 3am.

"I asked him why he didn't phone an ambulance and he said he didn't have a phone."

Sussex Ambulance paramedic Crawford Paton said he thought Mr Sully had been dead for some hours before his body was discovered. Paramedics were called back to the scene when Mr Kerr was discovered passed out in the flat.

Andrew Smith, toxicologist at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, said cocaine and heroin were in Mr Sully's body at the time of his death.

Mark Boxer, pathologist at the Conquest Hospital, said he believed an overdose of heroin had caused the death.

His father, Alan, said: "He started smoking cannabis at 14 or 15 but we didn't know until much later he used heroin.

"When we did know we helped him as much as we could. When he was in prison he put himself forward for voluntary drug testing and he got an NVQ to be a fitness instructor. He wouldn't do it to himself."

Andrew Larkin, who now lives in Chatham, admitted he injected Mr Sully with the drug on many occasions since the age of 15.

He said his friend had used heroin on weekends in the five weeks between his release and his death.