Parents told they whole truth about

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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 that 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.

‘It’s not a simple cocaine overdose. I think he was murdered’

“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

Prospect Farm