The parents of a popular DJ who died at a caravan park between Canterbury and Herne Bay have been told they will never find out the whole truth about their son’s death.

John and Linda Ritchie had sat through four days of evidence at an inquest into Aaron’s death – even testifying that they believe he was murdered.

But coroner Christopher Morris accepted that the 24-year-old had died of a cocaine overdose at Prospect Farm in Greenhill four years ago, but told the Ritchies the clinical cause of death was as far as the solid evidence went.

He said: “Having listened to the evidence, I have every sympathy for you, but the position we found ourselves in is that we may never be sure about what happened that night.

“I am satisfied that Aaron died of a cocaine overdose, but the evidence does not disclose when or by what means the fatal overdose or overdoses were ingested.”

Aaron suffered a fit at a mobile home in Prospect Farm after a night out in Canterbury on November 30, 2012.

He went into cardiac respiratory arrest shortly after midnight and was pronounced dead at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital at 2am on December 1.

Mr Morris added: “Aaron died far too young. Information was made available that drugs played a part in his death, but there were no suspicious circumstances.

“I am satisfied that the medical cause of death was a cocaine overdose. The levels of cocaine measured were within the range associated with a fatality.”

Mrs Ritchie, a former Canterbury police officer, had testified that her son was not a drug user.

But witnesses said Aaron was in fact a known drug user. Among them, Shaun Edgar, 32, said: “Aaron did do drugs.

“There was a bit of it flying around back then. It was not anything heavy, but there was cocaine about.

“People might have a few drinks and a few lines of cocaine. I saw Aaron do it on quite a few occasions.”

Arty Lockhart, the owner of Prospect Farm, testified that he had seen Aaron snort cocaine outside a Canterbury pub earlier in the day on November 30.

Mr Lockhart later went for a meal at the Kudos Chinese restaurant in Dover Street while Aaron returned to Prospect Farm, with Mr Lockhart’s daughter Leianne.

The pair were playing music in one of the caravans when Aaron began to have a fit.

Mr Edgar, who lived at the farm, was called to the caravan. He said: “Aaron was having spasms so me and my friend put him on the sofa and tried to calm him down and then we decided to take him outside to get some fresh air.”

Mr Edgar and his friend laid Aaron on a bench in the recovery position. A mobile phone was placed in his mouth to stop him biting his tongue. Water had also been splashed on him in an effort to revive him.

He added: “Then the ambulance crew turned up and did what they needed to do. We stood back.”

Paramedic Ian Holness was in the ambulance which arrived at Prospect Farm at just after midnight on December 1, 2012.

He described the atmosphere there as hostile.

“There were a crowd of people milling about and after I got out of the vehicle and went over, I could see Mr Ritchie lying on a bench,” Mr Holness told the coroner.

“Somebody mentioned that there had been drugs and alcohol. After our arrival, Mr Ritchie went into cardiac respiratory arrest.

“It was a bitterly cold night so we put him in the ambulance.”

Aaron was taken to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital where registrar Answar Abdulrehman formally pronounced him dead at 2am.

Dr Abdulrehman said: “Somebody told us that there had been a history of drug-taking with this patient.”

Despite the evidence, Mrs Ritchie told the inquest’s second day last Wednesday that she thinks her son was intentionally killed.

She also believes he was wet because he had been waterboarded, a method of torture infamously linked to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre which involves pouring water over someone to simulate the effect of drowning.

She said: “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.”

Coroner Mr Morris recorded a narrative verdict in which he accepted cocaine overdose as the clinical cause of death, but said there was no evidence available as to how it came to be in Aaron’s system.

Mr and Mrs Ritchie declined to comment after the hearing.

Square-jawed, large and imposing, Arty Lockhart is far from happy.

The 60-year-old feels his and his family’s reputation has been unfairly sullied by accusations made at the inquest.

“It’s disgusting. We’ve been made to look like we’re murderers by Aaron’s mum,” Mr Lockhart says in a gravelly voice thick with east Kent twang.

“All we ever did was try to help that boy. He was a smashing lad, just a really nice fellow.”

Aaron came to live at Prospect Farm some months before his death. Mr Lockhart says he found him asleep under a blanket in the doorway of a shop in Herne Bay High Street.

He offered him a caravan to live in at Prospect Farm, near the former Share and Coulter pub. The farm is set around a private drive which snakes off Thornden Wood Road.

At its centre is Mr Lockhart’s farmhouse. Around it is 30 other units, comprising caravans and static homes he rents out. There is also a handful of light industrial units.

Aaron was given a unit at the top of the road in exchange for work around the farm.

Mr Lockhart employed him to do electrical wiring, including fitting a CCTV system for the farm.

He says he and Leianne are still haunted by Aaron’s death.

“We did what we could for him,” Mr Lockhart said.

“That’s what hurts the most. So how dare people like Aaron’s mum say that we did something wrong that night.

"She was talking about him being waterboarded. I had never even heard of waterboarding before this.

“The truth is that we were the ones who truly cared about Aaron.”

A senior officer who investigated Kent Police’s handling of Aaron Ritchie’s death concluded the force’s work was “inadequate”.

Jon Holl, then a detective inspector with the force, was tasked with dealing with a formal complaint lodged by the Ritchies.

He told coroner Christopher Morris: “It became clear that I needed to review the investigation because it was in my view completely inadequate.

“The first thing I wanted to do was gather together the papers, to review the statements and any reports to the coroner. It became clear that the information I was seeking was not in the possession of the police.”

Mr Holl said he would have wanted to have access to officers’ pocketbooks, incident records, photographs, statements of key officers and a list of medical staff who attended.

But Mr Holl, now a investigator at the Home Office, said: “But the police’s response was inadequate. There were things that should have been done which were not done.

“There were statements which were not taken as soon as possible, statements from potential key witnesses who were there at the time of Aaron’s death.”

Aaron’s mother Linda testified last Wednesday that her son had told her he was in danger and could not leave Prospect Farm.

She believes the cocaine found in his system was put there by someone else.

Mr Holl went on: “I spoke at length with the family and I understand their frustrations. The family felt that their son was in danger and that caused me concern.

“However, I found no suggestion that he had been murdered. Clearly there were drugs in his system, but how they got there I cannot say. Was there third party involvement? I found no evidence of that.”

Kent Police confirmed an acting detective inspector involved in the investigation was given a written warning following a review by the force’s professional standards department.

It decided the officer had a case to answer in relation to a neglect of duty and a public disciplinary hearing was held in July last year.

The panel ruled that the officer’s actions, although not deliberately incorrect, amounted to misconduct as he had not followed the correct procedure in line with investigating sudden deaths.