Peaches Geldof 'had been a heroin addict', inquest hears

Peaches Geldof had been a heroin addict and hid the drug in her attic, according to her husband Tom Cohen.

Fourteen years after her mother Paula Yates died of a heroin overdose, Peaches was found dead in her home on Sunday 6 April. A toxicology report showed she had heroin in her system, although police reportedly suggested at the time that no drugs or drug paraphernalia had been found in the house.

The inquest in Gravesend heard today that the 25-year-old had taken the substitute drug methadone for two-and-a-half years before her death and had started using heroin again in February this year.

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North West Kent Coroner Roger Hatch said Peaches had been finding it difficult to come off methadone, but was reducing the dosage.

Cohen had apparently spoken to his wife about her drugs use and she retrieved heroin from the loft in February this year and flushed it down the toilet, reports the Daily Telegraph. After this, he checked the attic for drugs himself but found nothing, the coroner said.

A police search following Peaches' death found "importation quality" heroin stashed in a black cloth bag inside a cupboard and drugs paraphernalia in the property, the inquest heard.

Dr Peter Cain, a forensic scientist, said the brown powder found by investigators was 6.91g of heroin with a purity of 61 per cent.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Fotheringham, who led the investigation, told the inquest that it "far exceeded" the 26 per cent purity usually found at street level.

"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," he said.

"There were also 45 packaged and sealed syringes, alcohol wipes and cotton buds."

Police also found a pair of knotted black tights under Peaches' body.

Peaches Geldof inquest due to tackle unanswered questions

22 July

An inquest into the death of Peaches Geldof will begin tomorrow at Gravesend Old Town Hall, three months after she was found dead at her Kent home.

A post-mortem examination proved inconclusive, prompting further tests to be conducted. Blood and tissue were sent for toxicology testing, which later revealed that heroin had been in her system.

A preliminary inquest in May revealed that the 25-year-old was found slumped on a bed faced-down by her husband Thomas Cohen on Monday 7 April. The couple's youngest son Phaedra was in another room in the house at the time.

"Recent use of heroin and the levels identified were likely to have played a role in her death," Det Ch Insp Paul Fotheringham told the hearing. But a drug overdose has not yet been established as the official cause of death and police found no evidence of drugs paraphernalia at her home.

"If heroin did play a part in her death, the source of the class A substance is likely to be one of the questions that needs answering," says the Daily Mirror. The newspaper says that the inquest could also establish whether Peaches took her own life.

The preliminary inquest in May, which lasted just ten minutes, heard that Peaches' last known contact before she died was a phone call with a friend at 7.45pm on Sunday 6 April. Her father-in-law saw her at 5pm that day and said she "seemed her normal self".

The news of Peaches' death broke just 24 hours after she had posted an Instagram picture of herself as a toddler with her mother Paula Yates, who died from an accidental drug overdose in 2000, when Peaches was just 11.

Roger Hatch, the coroner for north-west Kent, adjourned the full inquest until the end of July so that Cohen and Peaches' father Bob Geldof were able to attend.

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