‘Pooling’ money to buy Ecstasy ended in student’s fatal fall

 A student who admitted taking drugs with a friend who later died has asked for forgiveness, saying “pooling” money to buy Ecstasy was just like buying a round of drinks.

Alexander Chippindale, 20, pleaded guilty at Plymouth Crown Court to his part in jointly buying and supplying the drug taken on the night Luke Johns, 19, fell from the stairs at his halls of residence in February last year.

Judge Paul Darlow adjourned sentencing for a probation report but said the drug was not the “major cause of his death”. An inquest in January heard Mr Johns had also drunk a lot of alcohol and smoked cannabis before his fall from the ninth floor.

Chippindale said outside court: “Please don’t make me out to be a bad person. I lost a good friend.” He added that the sharing and taking of MDMA was “common in student culture”.

Mr Johns, of Pontypridd, died from multiple head injuries in his fall at Discovery Heights in the city centre.