Man died after taking 15 ecstasy tablets

Sean O’Riordan

An inquest heard yesterday that James O’Donovan started popping the tablets despite a friend’s advice at the party, which started just before midnight on November 19 last at a house in Carrignafoy, Cobh.

A number of people, including Mr O’Donovan, from 3 Springfield Park, Cobh, attended the party. One of them, Alan Moran, described how his friend “started lashing down yokes (ecstasy tablets)”.

He said that before he and O’Donovan went to the house party they had a discussion about where they were going to acquire the tablets.

“I took one or two (tablets) myself. He (O’Donovan) took just one after the other. I’d say he had more than 10 to 15 over the course of four or five hours,” Mr Moran said.

He added that he had challenged his friend about what he was doing, but he had replied he was “grand”.

Mr Moran said he had seen Mr O’Donovan taking cocaine before, but never ecstasy in that quantity.

At Cork City Coroner’s court yesterday, the deceased’s elder brother, Denis, asked Mr Moran from whom the tablets had been acquired.

He replied that he had informed the gardaí of this and he was willing to tell him too, as soon as the inquest was finished. Mr Moran said that shortly after 5am, James O’Donovan started shaking. He told him he should go for a walk. “He didn’t pass out. He was mumbling. I’ve never seen him like that before,” Mr Moran said.

He added that he realised Mr O’Donovan was showing symptoms of overdosing because he had seen such things on the television.

He made a 999 call and a local doctor arrived. When the ambulance came, Mr Moran gave one of the crew an ecstasy tablet which was lying on the floor of the flat. Mr O’Donovan was pronounced dead a short time later at Cork University Hospital.

Sergeant John Quinn said that gardaí had searched the flat but “it had been cleaned” of drugs before they arrived.

As a result he said, that as of yet, there was not enough evidence available for criminal proceedings.

A post mortem carried out by pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster showed there was major damage to Mr O’Donovan’s internal organs.

Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said the level of MDMA (ecstasy) in his blood was 5.3 micrograms per millilitre of blood. The fatal range, she added, was normally between 0.6 and 2.8 micrograms.

Two hours after consuming one tablet, the average level in the blood was 0.33 micrograms, which indicated just how many Mr O’Donovan had consumed.

“There was a very rapid rate of decomposition of his body due to increased temperature, which was caused by the ecstasy,” Dr Cullinane said.

She recorded a verdict of death due to misadventure.

“It highlights yet again the dangers of ecstasy. We’ve had experience in this court before of people dying after just one tablet,” the coroner added.