Hungerford father kept nightly vigil for his son

Then, one dreadful night, there was only silence from the bedroom of James Bruce Ellard at the home they shared in Hungerford Park.
The hearing in Newbury Town Hall was told that a cocktail, including the heroin substitute methadone, the dissociative anaesthetic ketamine and the sedative diazepam (valium), was later found in his system.
All three substances depress the central nervous system and, taken together, they stopped his breathing, according to a post mortem report.
Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford asked: “Was this something you always did - check on his breathing at night? You must have been living on the edge.”
Mr Ellard’s father Michael described how he had always tried to help his son as he battled his addictions over the years with the help of Newbury-based substance misuse service KCA.
He was prescribed 80ml of methadone, the liquid heroin
substitute, but would often top up with street drugs, the inquest heard.
His father said that on March 15 his son had asked him for money, supposedly to pay for a detoxification course at KCA.
He said: “I gave him the money for the course... later he appeared to have taken drugs. When I got to the (Newbury) clock tower he was half asleep on the bench.”
It subsequently transpired that there was no course and that the cash had probably been spent on buying valium from a Newbury street dealer.
Mr Ellard senior drove his son home and prepared them a meal, which they both ate. Later on, he found a line of white powder in his son’s room and, assuming it was ketamine, pleaded with him not to take it.
He added: “He said: ‘It’s only a line, Dad’.” I awoke at 1am and heard him snoring. I woke again at 4.30am and went into his room because I couldn’t hear anything.”
Tragically, Mr Ellard senior’s worst fears had been realised. His son had succumbed and paramedics were unable to revive him.
Post mortem tests revealed a deadly cocktail in his system including a dose of methadone that was “significantly above the therapeutic range” and within the fatal overdose range even for someone with tolerance to the drug, indicating that Mr Ellard had probably topped up his already generous prescription with street methadone.
There was a “relatively high” concentration of ketamine, low levels of diazepam and cannabis also in his bloodstream.
Taken together, said Mr Bedford, they stopped Mr Ellard breathing.
He recorded that Mr Ellard had died from use of drugs and explained to the family that this was a modern version of the
‘misadventure’ verdict, designed to aid “the powers that be” to keep records of such deaths.