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Peaches Geldof was a heroin addict, inquest told Peaches Geldof had relapsed into taking heroin, inquest told
(about 1 hour later)
Peaches Geldof was a heroin addict who had been taking the substitute drug methadone in the two and a half years before her death, an inquest has heard. Peaches Geldof had relapsed and been taking heroin for two months before she died, a court inquest heard on Wednesday.
The journalist, model and television presenter had started using heroin again in February this year, her husband, Thomas Cohen, told the hearing. The 25-year-old journalist, who was found dead in her Kent home on 7 April, had been receiving treatment for heroin addiction for the past two and half years, and had been taking the drug substitute methadone.
And he had witnessed her flushing drugs she had hidden in the loft of their home in Wrotham, Kent, down the toilet. However, giving evidence at the inquest, Geldof's husband, Thomas Cohen, dressed solemnly in a white shirt and black waistcoat, confirmed that he had found text messages on his wife's phone in February 2014 suggesting she had once again begun using the highly addictive class A drug.
The 25-year-old was found slumped on the bed in the spare room by Cohen, with one leg hanging down to the floor and the other tucked underneath her after she failed to answer the phone. Geldof had confessed and retrieved drugs hidden in the loft. Cohen confirmed he had then witnessed her flush the drugs down the toilet. He had gone back to check the loft for drugs on later occasions, but had found nothing more.
The musician confirmed that he had gone to stay with his parents in south-east London with the couple's two sons, Astala, two, and one-year-old Phaedra, and his wife had seemed fine when he spoke to her on several occasions over the weekend. The inquest heard that Cohen's father, Keith, had seen Geldof when he dropped the younger child home to her and she appeared fine, and Cohen said he had last spoken to his wife at 5.40pm on Sunday 6 April. The inquest, held in Gravesend, Kent, was told that there was evidence of codeine, methadone and morphine in Geldof's blood, which had come from heroin, and that the levels were within the fatal range.
After failing to get hold of his wife the next day, Cohen and his mother returned to the property with Astala and found Geldof's body, the hearing in Gravesend was told. On the bed next to where she was found was "a small clear coloured cap thought to have come from a syringe" and a pair of knotted black tights, and under the bed was "a dessert spoon … with visible burn marks on the underside and a small amount of a brown residue".
The model had been having weekly drugs tests, which she had told her husband were negative but, even though he had not seen her take drugs, he became concerned that she might be, the inquest was told. Large quantities of "importation quality heroin" were also found, including a bag in the couple's bedroom containing 6.91g diamorphine – worth around £500 – 34 medical syringes and 47.5g of citric acid, a substance used in the preparation of heroin. Two more pairs of knotted tights, thought to have been used as a tourniquet, were also in the bag.
The north-west Kent coroner Roger Hatch said Geldof had been finding it difficult to come off methadone although she was reducing the dosage because she did not want to take it any more. The coroner noted that the drugs were 61% pure, considerably higher than the usual 25% of street-grade heroin, making it more dangerous, particularly for someone who had a lower tolerance to it.
Cohen had spoken to his wife about her drug use and she retrieved heroin from the loft in February this year and flushed it down the toilet, the inquest was told. Roger Hatch, the coroner, concluded that the cause of the 25-year-old's death was opiate intoxication.
Following this, Cohen would check the loft for drugs himself but found nothing, Hatch said. The singer's husband described how he had left their home on Friday morning, with the couple's two sons, Astala, two, and one-year-old Phaedra, to go to London for music rehearsals and they had stayed with his parents in south-east London.
But Cohen became aware from police inquiries following her death that drugs were found in the house. Cohen said he had been in constant communication with his wife over the weekend and when he last spoke to her at 5.40pm on the Sunday he had found her coherent and had no concerns for her wellbeing.
A postmortem examination carried out at Darenth Valley hospital found a puncture mark on the front of her right elbow and another at the front of her right thigh. Old puncture marks were also found on her left thigh, the inquest was told. She had spent Friday evening with friends in London, going to the cinema, before returning to Kent and then watching the TV series True Detective on Saturday night alone at home.
Police investigating Geldof's death found "importation quality" heroin stashed in a black cloth bag inside a cupboard over a bedroom door and drugs paraphernalia in the property, the inquest heard. Cohen's father Keith had visited the home on Sunday evening, before her death, to drop off Astala. DCI Paul Fotheringham of Kent police, who led the investigation, told the inquest that her father-in-law had found Peaches "in good spirits. She told him that she had booked a trip for the children to a theme park and that she had been writing an article."
The forensic scientist Dr Peter Cain analysed the brown powder found by investigators and concluded that it was 6.91 grams of heroin with a purity of 61%. However, Cohen said, he was unable to contact her the next morning and had driven back to their home in Wrotham, Kent, with his mother and youngest son, arriving at about 1.30pm.
DCI Paul Fotheringham, who led the investigation, told the inquest that the drugs would have been worth £350 to £550. After going upstairs, Cohen found his wife slumped forward on the bed in the spare bedroom, with one leg hanging off the side of the bed and a laptop beside her, and it was "obvious she was deceased".
The officer said that it "far exceeded" the 26% purity usually found at street level. He said: "I found her in the spare bedroom. We both used it when the kids were sleeping."
Fotheringham said: "The black bag also contained 34 medical syringes. Some were with needles and some without. Some were sealed in original packaging and some contained traces of a brown-coloured residue. Cohen told the inquest how Geldof had been battling her drug addiction through treatment over the past two and a half years, but confirmed his wife had recently been finding it difficult to come off the prescription methadone.
"There were also 45 packaged and sealed syringes, alcohol wipes and cotton buds." The model had been having weekly drugs tests which she had told her husband were negative, the inquest was told.
Police also found a pair of knotted black tights under Peaches' body and two other pairs of tights with knots in them elsewhere in the property. Asked by Hatch if he thought she might have been lying about the results, Cohen replied: "Yes."
A burnt spoon was also found under the bed where Peaches was found dead together with cotton wool, and other burnt spoons were located throughout the house. He was then asked whether Geldof had been a heroin addict, to which he also answered: "Yes."
Fotheringham told the inquest that the forensic scientist Emma Harris had found a high level of morphine in Geldof's blood, suggesting she had died shortly after taking heroin and that it was likely the substance had played a role in her death. Describing the scene of Geldof's death, Fotheringham said: "The presence of the tied tights as a possible tourniquet, burnt spoon, cotton bud end and used syringe in close proximity to Peaches' body suggests that heroin has been partly prepared and consumed at some time in the room Peaches was found.
In her report, Harris said: "Persons taking heroin on a regular basis develop a tolerance to the drug, and such individuals can use doses that would be toxic, or fatal, to people with no tolerance. "The pathologist states cause of death to be opiate intoxication. When considering all of the above information, I, as the senior investigating officer, conclude that Peaches Geldof-Cohen died of a heroin overdose."
"However, tolerance to heroin and other opiate drugs appears to be lost fairly rapidly when users cease to use the drug, and deaths commonly occur in people who have previously been tolerant and have returned to using heroin." A postmortem examination carried out at Darenth Valley hospital found a puncture mark on the front of her right elbow and another at the front of her right thigh.
After hearing the evidence, Hatch concluded that Geldof's death was drugs-related and that heroin had played a part in her death. Old puncture marks were also found on her left thigh, the inquest was told.
He said that although she had struggled to come off methadone because of her addiction to heroin, by November 2013 Geldof had been found to be free of heroin and reducing her methadone. The coroner concluded that Geldof's death had been drug-related. Summing up, he said: "There is no indication that Peaches intended to take her own life or harm herself in any way … Someone who stops or ceases to use heroin then resumes is less able to tolerate the levels they previously had."
But a message found on her phone by Cohen in February this year indicated she was using drugs again, he told the hearing. He said that the large amount of drugs paraphernalia found in her home made it clear that she was taking heroin, but that her tolerance levels had declined.
Hatch said: "It's said that the death of Peaches Geldof-Cohen is history repeating itself but this not entirely so. "It has been said this is a case of history repeating itself. But this is not entirely so," he added, referring to the death of Geldof's mother Paula Yates, who also died of a heroin overdose. "For reasons we shall never know she had started again to use heroin."
"By November last year she had ceased to take heroin as a result of the considerable treatment and counselling that she had received.
"This was a significant achievement for her but for reasons we will never know prior to her death she returned to taking heroin."