Cambridge student may have died after LSD fall
AN “EXCEPTIONAL” Cambridge student may have been sliding down a banister while on LSD when he fell to his death, a pre-inquest review heard.
Thomas Millward, 19, was found injured at the bottom of stairs after police were called to 148-year-old Girton College on March 5 last year.
He died the following day at the city’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
Cambridgeshire assistant coroner Simon Milburn said medical evidence about a finding of LSD would be heard at a later three-day jury inquest.
Evidence of two people running up and down a corridor before the incident and of a footprint on a vending machine is being considered ahead of the full inquest, the hearing at Cambridgeshire Coroner’s Court in Huntingdon was told yesterday.
A cousin of Mr Millward’s parents, whose name was given as Dr O’Driscoll, told the hearing: “We would just like to know the truth as far as possible.”
He continued: “Was he sliding down the bannisters, was he balancing and fell, or was he on the [vending] machine?”
Cambridgeshire Police said at the time that Mr Millward’s death was not thought to be suspicious. The engineering student, originally from Cheltenham, died of serious head injuries.
The teenager’s parents, Brian and Maisa, said he had studied engineering at the university since September 2015.
They described him as “exceptional” and “one of the most promising young men of his generation”.
His father expressed concerns that a post-mortem examination had not been carried out.
“It might have given possible indications of how high he fell from, whether his knee had given way or that kind of thing,” he said.
The family said that his organs had been donated so that he could help others.
A full inquest will be heard before a jury at a date to be fixed.