Huddersfield man dies after taking methadone on night out

May 21 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A DAD paid a heartfelt tribute to his loving son who died after taking methadone on a night out.

The Huddersfield inquest heard that Kevin Pinkney, 20, had taken the heroin substitute during a heavy drinking session.

Two days later he was found unresponsive by his housemate and died in hospital on December 3 after being declared brain-dead.

The inquest heard that Mr Pinkney had not been a regular drug user and appeared to have taken the prescription-only drug as a one-off when drunk.

Yesterday Mr Pinkney’s dad Garry said lessons need to be learned from his death.

He said: “He was full of life, a wonderful character who was loved by all and will be sadly missed by all.

“Young people need to learn from this, but why should they be learning from my son’s death?”

Mr Pinkney, a pushchair technician for Huddersfield company Mamas & Papas, had spent the weekend drinking heavily with Simon Castle.

Mr Pinkney had moved into Mr Castle’s Clough Road home in Birkby two weeks before his death when his mum and stepfather had gone on holiday to Australia.

Mr Castle told the inquest he and Mr Pinkney had started drinking heavily at home together early Saturday morning.

He said: “We were very drunk and then we went out. Kevin bought some methadone, he’d heard it was meant to be liquid amphetamine. We shared it.

“I woke up on Sunday and was violently sick. Kevin was lying on the sofa like he was sleeping. I saw him again on the Monday and was concerned because he hadn’t moved.

“I called an ambulance telling them he’d taken some liquid stuff or methadone. I went back to him and he wasn’t breathing.”