PARENTS TELL OF DRUG-DEATH TEEN TORMENT
THE family of a 16-year-old who “had his whole life planned out” said they were “completely shocked” when he died after taking Ecstasy at a Halloween rave.
Morgan Miller-Smith had ambitions to go to university and study the stock market in New York, when he fell ill at the HP Fest at Gwytherin near Abergele.
The first day of an inquest into the teenager’s death heard that the schoolboy from Conwy had bought two yellow Ecstasy pills described as “Bitcoin” or “Gary’s” ahead of the festival, taking half a pill before he entered the venue.
Friends later described seeing him “out of it” dancing around and sweating, with his eyes “bulging” with some saying he had bought three more pills at the event because he “didn’t feel them kick in”.
Further into the evening, Morgan was struggling to stand and collapsed to the ground where he began fitting.
He was taken to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd where he was pronounced dead in the early hours of October 29, 2017, despite frantic efforts to save him.
A post mortem carried out by pathologist, Brian Rodgers revealed Morgan had taken a “high concentration” of MDMA and gave a cause of death as MDMA/ecstasy toxicity.
Event organiser Hollie Profit said six security staff were employed for the 450-capacity festival aimed at 16 to 19-year-olds, and was confident they had done a thorough job of carrying out searches.
She spoke of an incident during the evening where a man had been escorted out for “being lairy,” pills were found in his possession in a Kinder Egg and were handed to police.
She added: “I saw security staff emptying cigarette packets and going through wallets so I was confident searches were being carried out thoroughly.”
Miss Profit broke down in tears when asked if more could have been done as she answered “no.”
Morgan’s mother, Deborah Gould, said he was her youngest of three children who was studying maths, further maths and business studies at sixth form at Ysgol Aberconwy and had planned to go to university with ambitions to go into stocks and shares.
She said he had enjoyed sports, loved films and going out with his friends.
He worked in L’s Coffee Shop in Conwy with his mum and older brother, Alex.
Ms Gould said Morgan was “happy, well liked, and never got stressed or angry”.
She added: “When I heard that Morgan had taken drugs, I was completely shocked.
“He’s always been very sensible.” She said he had been to HP Fest the previous year and never had any concerns about him attending as it was properly organised.
Morgan’s father, Brian Miller added: “Morgan’s death came as a huge shock to the family” and said they were unaware he had ever been in possession of any drugs or had any inclination of taking them.
He added: “Morgan’s death had a huge impact on our lives and we miss him so much. He did well with his exams and his education and he had his life planned out.
“He had aspirations to go to university and dreamed of going to New York to study the stock market, I always thought he would do that.”
Brian said: “When the police told me Morgan’s death possibly involved drugs, I was adamant that they were mistaken.
“Morgan was sensible and we always thought he was very antidrugs... he’d always been so vocal about the damage they cause.
“I never thought we’d ever be in this position. This kind of thing happens to other people.But we are devastated that one bad decision has led to him being taken away from us.
“Our lives have changed forever and will never be the same again.”
The hearing continues.