Parents investigate autistic son’s overdose
THE parents of an autistic teenager who died from an accidental overdose say they were forced to investigate how he died because of delays in his inquest.
Will Melbourne, 19, died after mistakenly taking metonitazene, a strong synthetic opioid he bought on the dark web, but his family had to wait three years for his inquest.
In that time, they were helped by a barrister, acting pro bono, who helped them investigate their son's death.
Sally Melbourne, his mother, told the BBC: “We thought the inquest system was there to give us answers. Instead, we felt blocked at every turn. It was outrageous that we had to take the investigation on ourselves.”
Their case follows the disclosure by The Daily Telegraph last month that 5,000 bereaved families have been waiting more than a year for an inquest.
Mrs Melbourne and her husband John, from Cheshire, said the long wait for the inquest put their lives and their grief on hold.
At the pre-inquest hearing, the family were told that the court was shortstaffed and had a backlog of 500 cases.
They said they only discovered what drug their son had taken before he died, on 18 Dec 2020, after investigating his death with one of his friends – examining photographs of the scene of Will's death.
They said vital evidence – a packet of blue pills found next to Will's body – was not tested until they raised it with the coroner's court a year after he died.
Will was self-medicating for his anxiety and bought what he believed was oxycodone on the dark web.
But his parents found out that the pills he took were metonitazene – a synthetic opioid hundreds of times stronger than morphine.
Warrington Coroner's Service said it was not permitted to comment.
A government spokesman said: “We are determined to ease the burden on grieving families and have taken decisive action to reduce coroners' caseloads which increased as a result of the pandemic.”