Reveller dies after taking 'legal highs'

A FESTIVAL reveller who thought he was “invincible” died from a lethal ‘designer’ drugs cocktail ordered over the internet.

Forty-six-year-old Grant Christopher Wooldridge had taken so much of one chemical that it could have killed him on its own, an inquest in Newbury heard yesterday (Wednesday).

But he mixed it with four other hallucinogenic and stimulant chemicals, triggering seizures and cardiac arrest, the hearing was told.

The cocktail included the banned drug mephedrone plus so-called legal highs whose possible side effects included anxiety, paranoia, high blood pressure, nausea, vomiting and convulsions.

At the inquest in the Town Hall, Mr Grant’s girlfriend Laura Bicknell was quizzed over why she had failed to seek medical help for Mr Wooldridge as his condition deteriorated.

She told the hearing that she and Mr Grant had gone to a festival in the West Country on July 7, where they met his nephew, Charlie Wooldridge.

She insisted she had no knowledge of Mr Grant’s drug taking and had only seen him take one blue and white pill which she had assumed was a painkiller.

After taking him home, she said, she had helped him to bathe and then went to bed, leaving him on the living room couch.

Next morning she found him cold and unresponsive and called Charlie Wooldridge, who told her to call emergency services immediately, the hearing was told.

Tragically, it was too late - Mr Wooldridge was already dead.

Charlie Wooldridge said he had known immediately that something was wrong with his uncle when he arrived at the festival.

He said: “He pulled out some plastic packets marked ‘not for human consumption.’ He didn’t look right; his eyes were funny. He took out a pill and I knocked it out of his hand.

“I asked him what the drugs were and, because we joked he thought he was invincible, he said ‘kryptonite.’ I told Laura to take everything off him. He was acting really weird and agitated. By 11pm he was so bad I told Laura to get him some help.”

Instead, Miss Bicknell drove him home, the hearing was told.

Under questioning from David Goldsmith, representing Mr Wooldridge’s family, she denied knowing how or where Mr Grant got the drugs.

Mr Goldsmith said: “There was a fairly rapid deterioration. Charlie, clearly extremely concerned about his condition, told you to take him to the first aid tent. Why didn’t you? I’m unable to understand why you didn’t seek medical help.”

She replied: “I will have to live with that.”

Mr Goldsmith pressed her: “Are you concealing information?”

She replied: “No.”

A post mortem found Mr Wooldridge had suffered seizures caused by a potentially fatal overdose of the illegal stimulant fluoromethamphetamine boosted by other exotic, ‘designer’ stimulants and hallucinogens.

Cause of death was given as the co-toxicity of the drugs cocktail.

An underlying heart condition could have been exacerbated by the chemicals but would not have proved fatal on its own, the heaging was told.

Berskhire coroner Peter Bedford said there was evidence that Mr Wooldridge had obtained the drugs from a website known as Wide Mouth Frogs, which has since ceased trading following a police operation.

He recorded a verdict of misadventure.