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A Kent Police detective was one of three witnesses to give evidence at Peaches Geldof's inquest today - along with a Home Office pathologist and her widower Tom Cohen.
He revealed an investigation into who supplied heroin to the socialite is ongoing after a coroner ruled her death at home in Wrotham was drugs-related.
Revealing her last moments alive, the full report DCI Paul Fotheringham provided to coroner Roger Hatch is below. To read back over live updates from today's hearing, click here.
Circumstances
On Thursday 3rd April 2014 Peaches Geldof's husband Thomas Cohen went with their two sons Astala and Phaedra to stay for the weekend at his parent's house in South East London.
This is a normal occurrence that enabled Peaches and Thomas to complete work within their respective careers in fashion, journalism and music.
Throughout the latter part of the week and into the weekend Thomas maintained phone contact with Peaches.
It has been established she went out for a meal in London on the night of Friday 4th April with 2 close friends. Peaches and one of the friends then went to the cinema before returning to her friend’s house in Hampstead where Peaches stayed overnight.
On the morning of Saturday 5th April Peaches went shopping before returning to Kent by train, arriving back at Sevenoaks train station at 1:13pm.
She then took a taxi back to her home address. During the afternoon and early evening it is thought Peaches watched television including the TV show True Detective as this was mentioned in texts to friends.
Throughout this period she maintained telephone contact with various friends and family, there were no concerns for her welfare during this period.
It is believed that Peaches spent the morning and afternoon of Sunday 6th April at her home address alone, throughout this period she continued to maintain telephone contact with various family and friends including attempts to arrange the day out with family members, but this was cancelled due to poor weather.
As Sunday evening progressed Peaches continued to maintain contact with family and friends and at around 5pm Thomas's father Keith Cohen took the youngest child Phaedra back to Wrotham and spent around half-an-hour with Peaches before leaving the child with her.
Keith Cohen stated that Peaches seemed in good spirits, she told him that she had booked a trip for the children to a theme park and that she had been writing an article. There was nothing about Peaches mood or behaviour that concerned him.
The last known movements by Peaches on Sunday the 6th April are as follows:
Kent Police detectives attended the scene and initiated an investigation into the full circumstances of the death. I, as the senior officer in attendance, referred the death to the coroner having made an initial conclusion that the death was unexplained but there was no evidence to suggest a third party was involved.
The coroner agreed that the body should be removed to a mortuary for a post-mortem and that an investigation into the circumstances of the death be completed.
Peaches' father, Bob Geldof, subsequently identified his daughter to me at Darent Valley Hospital.
The Scene
The home address of High Wood, Fairseat Lane, is a four-bedroom detached property in a rural location on the outskirts of Wrotham in Kent. Peaches and her family had lived at the address since September 2013.
There were no apparent signs of any forced entry and valuable items remained intact throughout the property.
Peaches was located in the third of four bedrooms. This room is used as a spare room and would often be used for one of the parents when sharing a bed with one of the children.
Peaches was wearing a grey dress and a long sleeved striped top. Within the room was a double bed. Peaches was located perched on the side edge of this bed with her left leg hanging down to the floor with her right foot tucked underneath her.
She was slumped forward onto her front with her left arm draped over an open laptop computer.
Underneath Peaches' body was an Apple iPhone, a packet of cigarettes and a pair of black tights with a knot tied into them.
Also on the bed was a small clear coloured cap thought to have come from a syringe. Underneath the bed a dessert spoon was located with visible burn marks on the underside and a small amount of a brown residue on the upper side.
Next to the bed and within reaching distance of Peaches was an open brown cardboard box containing sweets; a capped syringe was located in this box. It was noted that there was a small amount of a brown fluid left in the main chamber and another small amount of residue/fluid inside the cap.
This residue was tested by forensic scientists who have confirmed that the brown residue found does contain traces of diamorphine (which is commonly known as 'heroin') but due to the small amount and chemical changes in the mixture during the 'cooking' process they were unable to obtain a reliable purity level and were unable to compare it to the unprepared heroin found elsewhere at the property discussed later.
The initial assessment of the scene supported my early hypothesis that Peaches had taken heroin and collapsed and died on the bed.
Detailed searches of the whole premises took place and located heroin and various items used for the preparation and consumption of heroin.
The major discovery in the second of four bedrooms was a black cloth bag stored in a cupboard over the bedroom door.
Located within this cloth bag was part of a plastic bag tied together by a dark hair band, the bag contained a brown powder. This powder was later examined by a forensic scientist Dr Peter Cain. He confirmed that the brown powder was 6.91 grams of Diamorphine, more commonly known as Heroin with a purity of 61%.
To assist with interpretation of the scene and items found I had the case reviewed by a Kent Police drugs liaison officer called Police Constable Adrian Parsons who produced a report explaining the process of heroin use and commented on aspects of the case. PC Parsons is a court recognised expert in the field of illicit drugs.
PC Parsons comments on the 61% purity as "importation quality" and that it far exceeds the average 26% purity found at street level. The officer describes this heroin as "good grade" and estimates the 6.91 grams recovered would be worth between £350-£550.
Another small plastic bag was found in the black cloth bag, this contained an amount of an unknown powder. This was also examined by Dr Cain who confirmed it was 47.5 grams of Citric Acid. PC Parsons refers to the use of citric acid in his review and describes how it is mixed with heroin to make it more soluble before mixing this with water as part of the heroin preparation process.
The black bag also contained the following items: 34 medical syringes, some were with needles and some without, some were sealed in original packaging and some contained traces of a brown coloured residue. Most of the syringes with needles were capped but there was one that was uncapped.
There were also 45 packaged and sealed syringes, alcohol wipes and cotton buds. Within the bag there were two cards advertising the Westminster needle exchange.
As previously mentioned, a pair of knotted black tights was located under Peaches' body. Following the search of the property two other pairs of tights with knots tied in them were located. PC Parsons confirms in his review that knotted tights can be used as a tourniquet during the injection intake of heroin.
As previously mentioned a burnt spoon was located under the bed where Peaches was located, next to the spoon was the cotton wool end from a cotton bud. PC Parsons details in his review how a heroin mixture is heated and dissolved in a spoon and drawn into a syringe with cotton wool being used as a filter to remove any impurities.
A number of other burnt spoons were located around the property, including in the cloth bag containing the heroin.
The presence of the tied tights as a possible tourniquet, burnt spoon, cotton bud end and used syringe in close proximity to Peaches body suggests that heroin has been partly prepared and consumed at some time in the room Peaches was found.
The lack of any means to heat the substance in the spoon along with the other paraphernalia, taken with comments by scientists that the effect of the injection of heroin is almost immediate, would suggest that some part of the preparation took place elsewhere in the house, taken to the room of use and then consumed whilst Peaches was sitting in that room.
Scientific Evidence
Samples of various body fluids from Peaches were examined by Forensic Scientist Emma Harris. This scientist was also provided with information about Peaches current and previous drug and medication usage.
Dr Harris provided detailed information about the use of diamorphine (heroin) and how the body reacts to this. The scientist commented about the high level of morphine found in Peaches' blood and how other readings suggest she died shortly after taking heroin. The scientist also commented on the presence of codeine in the blood and suggests it was produced by the body from an impurity found in illicitly produced heroin.
The paragraph of note from Dr Harris’s report reads ‘Persons taking heroin on a regular basis develop a tolerance to the drug, and such individuals can use doses that would be toxic, or fatal, to people with no tolerance. However, tolerance to heroin (and other opiate drugs) appears to be lost fairly rapidly when users cease to use the drug, and deaths commonly occur in people who have previously been tolerant and have returned to using heroin."
The conclusions from the scientist are as follows:
Methadone use by Peaches Geldof-Cohen
From bottles located at the home address it was identified that Peaches was prescribed oral solution sugar free methadone. It was established that Peaches had been receiving professional treatment over the last two-and-a-half years by way of methadone prescription.
Recent drug tests from November 2013 by her drug treatment providers did not indicate any use of illicit drugs at that time and records showed a reducing level of methadone being prescribed with a view to completely coming off of the drug.
Details of the recent prescription were provided to the police and the data indicates the current prescription period started in October 2013 and continued until 3rd April 2014. The amount prescribed started at 40mls daily and gradually reduces down to 9mls. Twenty seven methadone bottles were recovered from around the family home, only one of the bottles contained any liquid and this was dated January 2014 and was listed as 20mls.
The quantities of bottles found and the dose levels shown corresponded to the prescription data obtained from medical records.
The drug treatment providers stated that Peaches reported struggling with the levels of methadone in March 2014 and was offered additional support to help with her difficulties with sleeping.
Other matters
There is an on-going linked police investigation to establish who supplied the heroin to Peaches but to date there have been no arrests made.
Conclusion
It has been established that Peaches Geldof-Cohen had been previously addicted to heroin for a number of years but that more recently had ceased taking the drug.
Peaches had been supported by drug treatment workers for two-and-a-half years being prescribed methadone.
Peaches had indicated her desire to come off of methadone completely, and was following a plan to reduce the level of methadone she was taking.
A drugs test in November indicated that she was not taking any illicit drug. Witnesses report that around February of this year there was a suspicion that Peaches had started using illicit drugs again including being found with a substance believed to be heroin at her home address.
Following her death, drugs paraphernalia was found in the house and a quantity of high grade heroin was found to be secreted in a cupboard in the bedroom Peaches regularly used.
The post mortem found evidence of recent puncture marks on the inside of both elbows and on her left hand; the toxicology indicates a fatal level of heroin in the body. The pathologist states cause of death to be opiate intoxication.
When considering all of the above information, I, as the Senior Investigating Officer, conclude that Peaches Geldof-Cohen died of a heroin overdose.
From known contact between Peaches and her family and friends her death occurred at or after 8:00pm on the evening of Sunday 4th April 2014 and from evidence available she was at her home address alone with her son Phaedra.
There is no indication that any other third party was present or involved in her death and there is no indication that Peaches intended to take her own life or harm herself in any way as she was reported to be of happy disposition and planning for the future with friends and family.
