Brothers died from lethal dose of ecstasy delivered to their door

A CORONER yesterday condemned the ease with which an undergraduate and his brother had a deadly dose of ecstasy posted to their door via a secret part of the internet known as the ‘dark web’.

Teachers’ sons Torin Lakeman, 19, and Jacques, 20, died after unwittingly taking more than six times the lethal amount of MDMA, an inquest heard.

Torin, a student at the University of Aberystwyth, had bought the drug from an anonymous supplier on a hidden website that cannot be found using ordinary search engines so the brothers could ‘have a good weekend’ as they travelled to watch Manchester United play at Old Trafford.

Their father, Raymond, told the hearing in Bolton that the pair were more like ‘best friends’ than brothers, and were looking forward to seeing each other.

They had grown up on the Isle of Man and attended Castle Rushen High School where their mother, Sarah, teaches modern foreign languages while their teacher father also served as a commissioner with the local authority for many years. Jacques was a trainee chef living with his grandmother in London, while Torin was studying physics and planetary studies at Aberystwyth.

They arranged to meet in Manchester last November, and Torin ordered the ecstasy through an online supplier known only as Stone Island by accessing the ‘dark web’. University friend Ethan Bradley told the inquest that Torin took MDMA occasionally in order ‘to get a kick’.

‘He told me he was going to try and get some drugs to have a good weekend,’ he added. ‘He was trying to obtain drugs for him and his brother. He looked on the dark web.’

After watching Manchester United beat Hull City 3-0 they returned that night to the room they had booked at The Grapes pub in Bolton. Landlord William Pilkington said it was clear they had been consuming alcohol and ‘maybe something else’.

They had been due to return to their respective homes on the Sunday, but they failed to appear. Their families became concerned when they were unable to reach them on their mobiles. Their bodies were found by a cleaner at the pub.

Post-mortem examinations revealed that Jacques had 6.15mg of MDMA per litre of blood, while Torin’s reading was 7.08mg. Pathologist Dr Patrick Ward told the inquest that a lethal limit is an average of 1.7mg per litre.

Recording a narrative verdict yesterday, Bolton coroner Alan Walsh condemned the ‘confidential and sophisticated veil’ that protected drug dealers on the ‘dark web’ and the easy access it gave computer-literate youngsters to potentially deadly chemicals.

‘As a father and grandfather it is a frightening prospect,’ he said, adding that he would be voicing his concerns to the Home Office.

‘Have a good weekend’