A BARMAID whose body was found in a Bury pub had taken a fatal overdose of a heroin substitute.

Karen Dwerryhouse died after a late night drinking binge at the Peel Hotel, but a post-mortem revealed the 18-year-old had consumed two-and-a-half times the lethal dose of methadone, a prescribed drug used to wean addicts off heroin.

A fellow barmaid, Mrs Susan Smith, said the Rochdale Road pub was "a place where kids knew they could buy cannabis or anything else" at the time of Karen's death.

An inquest held in Bury on Wednesday into the teenager's death last June heard that the part-time barmaid was known to take cannabis. But friends and relatives of the former Bury CE High School pupil were never aware of her taking anything harder.

At the centre of the investigation was Mark Harrison, a trainee shift manager at the pub. He told the inquest he had seen the nursery assistant buy amphetamines at the Peel, but said he did not know where she got hold of the methadone which killed her.

And Coroner Mr Barrie Williams dismissed allegations that she was given the killer drug by Mr Harrison, a self-confessed former heroin addict.

Now on methadone himself, Mr Harrison of Alexander Road, Lostock, Bolton, said Karen had drunk eight halves of lager, several shorts and smoked a cannabis joint that evening, but he had not seen her take anything else. The following morning he found Karen's body in a bedroom at the hotel.

The inquest heard how on the night before her death, Karen had visited her mother, Mrs Carol Dodd, and had borrowed £100 from her to pay for day to day necessities. After her death she was found to be penniless, although £20 had been used to pay debts.

Her mum said Karen, who lived at a flat in Whitefield Road, Bury, had been known to smoke cannabis, a claim supported by barmaid Mrs Smith.

After finding her body, a shocked and traumatised Mr Harrison was seen by the pub's cleaner emptying rubbish bins before medical help arrived.

"There was no attempt to rid the bins of anything suspicious," said Mr Harrison who attempted artificial resuscitation before alerting help. "I needed to get out of the pub and get some fresh air. I just took the bins and emptied them at the back of the pub.

"If I had known Karen had taken methadone I would have kept an eye on her or sent her home. I risked my job, I was not allowed to have people stay overnight, and I have now paid the price. I lost my job, my career, over a mistake."

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Mr Williams said Karen's death was as a result of aspiratic pneumonia linked to the ingestion of alcohol and the methadone.

He added: "Evidence of how Karen obtained the methadone has largely been conjecture and therefore not reliable.

"There are many questions which remain unanswered. I do not believe there was any intent or foreseen risk of death of this young woman's tragic actions."

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