No evidence Dublin man suffered life-changing brain injury as result of spiked drink, inquest hears

An inquest has heard no evidence was found by gardaí to support rumours that a young Dublin man had suffered a life-changing brain injury as a result of his drink being spiked with drugs while at a house party in Tallaght almost a decade ago.

Gavin Coady (27) died at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown in Dublin on February 6th, 2020 after suffering complications as a result of a brain injury sustained six years earlier.

Coady, who came originally from Ballyfermot in Dublin, was brought by ambulance to Tallaght Hospital in an unresponsive state on November 4th, 2014 from an unknown address in the Springfield area of Tallaght where he had been attending a party.

After emerging from an induced coma, doctors found he had sustained permanent brain damage and he was subsequently placed in the care of Glenashling Nursing Home in Celbridge, Co Kildare where he had lived for several years until his death in 2020.

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A previous hearing of his inquest at Dublin city Coroner’s Court had been adjourned after Coady’s mother, Linda, had expressed concern about rumours she had heard that her son’s drink had been spiked on the night or that he had been force-fed methadone.

The coroner, Cróna Gallagher, said she had taken the decision to adjourn the inquest to allow gardaí make further inquiries about events on the night as there was a question mark over whether someone else could have caused his death.

At a resumed hearing on Tuesday, Gda Shane Whelan said investigators had been unable to establish where the party had been held on the night that Coady had collapsed despite extensive inquiries.

Gda Whelan explained that records were only kept by ambulance providers for a period of seven years and there were no notes kept by the hospital to indicate where Coady had been collected by ambulance.

Gda Whelan said an associate of Coady’s who had been at the same party, Kyle Foley, had been contacted.

The inquest heard Mr Foley, who claimed he was living in Portugal, was not surprised to have been contacted by gardaí as he was aware of rumours that the deceased’s drinks had been spiked.

Mr Foley informed gardaí that on the day of the party they had been out earlier in Dublin city centre where they had bought methadone in a flat.

At the party, Mr Foley said he had called an ambulance for Coady after seeing that he had become blue in the face.

Gda Whelan said Mr Foley did not think Coady’s family would believe him but he stressed that the deceased had been using methadone and observed that he had also been taking it while he had been in prison.

In reply to questions from the coroner, Gda Whelan said he found Mr Foley’s information to be credible.

Dr Gallagher said Coady was not registered with the health authorities for being prescribed methadone.

Gda Whelan said it appeared that Coady had been “living a very hectic lifestyle around the city”.

The inquest heard he had twice been caught with heroin in the month before suffering the brain injury, while he had also been found in possession of a large quantity of tablets in July 2014.

A few months earlier, he had been arrested after trying to bring a quantity of heroin into Portlaoise Prison.

Det Sgt Mary Fitzpatrick said gardaí had been unable to trace anyone else who had been at the party.

Det Sgt Fitzpatrick also said no motive had been identified as to why anyone might have spiked Coady’s drink on the night.

Asked if anything had been found to substantiate such rumours she replied: “There was no evidence of that at all.”

The coroner said a postmortem had shown that Coady had died from a combination of sepsis, pneumonia and a gastrointestinal bleed which she said were all complications of the hypoxic brain injury he had suffered in 2014.

Dr Gallagher confirmed the cause of the brain injury was “multiple-drug toxicity”.

She said toxicology results from when he was brought to Tallaght Hospital from the party showed Coady had consumed methadone, cannabis and benzodiazepines such as Valium, although it was not possible to quantify the amount of drugs in his body.

However, Dr Gallagher said one could presume there were high levels of the drugs given Coady had collapsed and was in an unresponsive state when brought to hospital.

She also observed that the benzodiazepines were more likely to have been in tablet than liquid form which also would indicate it was unlikely that his drink had been spiked.

Returning a verdict of death by misadventure, Dr Gallagher said there was no evidence of any third-party involvement in Coady’s death which appeared to have been “nothing other than a tragic accident”.

Offering condolences to the deceased’s mother, the coroner said it had been very difficult to have her son sick for such a long period of time.

However, Ms Coady said she was lucky to have got seven more years with her son despite his condition and she was happy that the inquest had brought closure to his death.