Inquest into Maltby man’s heroin death

Gary Moore, 51, died at Burns Court, Maltby, on 1st October 2010 after taking ‘17 lines of heroin’.

He suffered from bi-polar disorder and was sectioned several times. He had also tried to take his own life on a number of occasions, which the inquest heard were ‘a call for help’.

His daughter-in-law Gemma Marie Moore told the inquest that father-of-three Gary had lived a difficult life.

“His difficulties started in the 1990s,” she said. “He went away to work when he took an ecstasy tablet which triggered and underlying mental illness. He became a regular user of ecstasy.”

She continued: “His drug use caused problems with his marriage, which eventually broke down.”

The inquest then heard how Gary ran into trouble with the law on a number of occasions,

Gemma continued: “He was bi-polar, which did effect everything around him. If he was bad with it then he would take marijuana and things like that. He did mention that he used cocaine but never mentioned heroin.”

Gary eventually came to live at Burns Court. The Burns Court Project gave him day-by-day support and was said to be working well with them. The inquest heard that several days before Gary died, he was bright and cheerful but tired.

Pathologist Dr Ali Hussein said that normal therapeutic levels of anti-depressants were found in his blood and but blood samples showed signs of illicit heroin use.

The coroner concluded by recording that the cause of death was heroin toxicity with a ‘dependence upon drugs.

Following the inquest, Gemma told the Guardian: “Gary was an amazing and caring man. He did have plenty of problems but he loved kids and animals. I don’t really care what was said in there - he didn’t take heroin regularly and I am really unhappy with the outcome today - we want more clarity. He only really had problems when he didn’t take his medication.”

Gary’s son Ryan added: “He was well-known in Maltby, and this was completely out-of-character.”