The parents of a popular DJ who died at a caravan park between Canterbury and Herne Bay have told an inquest they believe he was murdered.

Aaron Ritchie passed away after suffering a fit brought on by a cocaine overdose at Prospect Farm, Greenhill, almost four years ago.

His parents John and Linda told the hearing that the 24-year-old had been “waterboarded” – the practice infamously linked to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre which involves pouring water over someone to simulate the effect of drowning.

But Aaron’s close friend Leanne Lockhart told the hearing that they had been out in Canterbury and returned to her mobile home at Prospect Farm where he had a fit in which he repeatedly bashed his head on the ground and bit his tongue.

She added that she knew Aaron had taken drugs in the past.

The Ritchies and Miss Lockhart were giving evidence at Canterbury Crown Court at the second day of a four-day inquest into Aaron’s death on the night of November 30, 2012.

Mrs Ritchie, a former Canterbury-based police officer, told coroner Christopher Morris that her son had always been against drug use, but that she had become concerned about his welfare after he moved to Prospect Farm in the autumn of 2012.

“I had concerns about his association at Prospect Farm as far as criminal activity and bullying were concerned,” she said.

“I was a police officer for 34 years and I had come across it.”

She said her son, who was born in Canterbury, had started to look “gaunt and unkempt” after moving to the farm and she had begged him to leave – to which he replied: “I can’t. It’s complicated.”

Mrs Ritchie said that she had an intimate conversation with her son at her house in Mickleburgh Hill, Herne Bay, in which he had spoken of his worries.

“Shortly before his death, he came to us and said he wanted to put his life back together,” she told the hearing.

“In particular, he said he was very frightened and said that he was in danger and that if anything happened to him, I would be devastated. I gave him a big hug, but I knew he was not happy.”

Mrs Ritchie said that overnight November 30 into December 1 she and her husband were visited first by friends of her son who asked if he suffered from epilepsy because he was having a fit and then by two police officers who told her he had died.

She added: “I have heard that the post-mortem suggests that this was a cocaine overdose. It’s not a simple cocaine overdose. I think he was murdered.

“He was covered in water and I believe he was waterboarded.

“I’m aware that the police were at Prospect Farm on the night of Aaron’s death. I don’t think they did enough to preserve the scene for long enough and all the evidence has been lost.”

Mr Ritchie told the coroner that his son often worked as a dj at Herne Bay’s Vivid nightclub and knew from the owner that he did not take drugs.

He echoed his wife’s claim that their son had died as a result of foul play.

“I believe Aaron was water-boarded,” Mr Ritchie said. “There was liquid removed from his chest, which was rattling when the ambulance arrived.

“If you have taken cocaine that is not going to produce a substantial amount of liquid in your chest. But if you are water-boarded then that is the same as drowning.

“I do not know how the drug got into him, but my suspicion is that it was put into him during the course of the waterboarding.”

Mr Ritchie added that when he later went to collect his son’s belongings, he found an ornamental Samurai sword which had been sharpened hidden in his bed.

Leanne Lockhart said she had been spending time with Aaron and considered him a very good friend, but denied it was a full-blown relationship.

She said that on the day he had died, they had been out in Canterbury and had met up with her father Arty following a police raid at the farm earlier that day.

They returned to Prospect Farm where they began playing music in her home.

She said: “He started having a fit and I was not sure what was wrong with him. He was convulsing and was hitting his head on the floor.

“My brother and sister had turned up by then and we splashed water in his face. They carried him to the sofa and called the ambulance.

“Someone put a mobile phone in his mouth to stop biting his tongue. I heard that he had taken drugs in the past.”

Aaron was pronounced dead later. At a previous hearing the cause of death was heard to be cocaine overdose.

The inquest continues.