COURT TOLD: FOUR DRUG DEATHS IN ONE HOUSE

The fact that four people had died from heroin-related causes in the
one ACT Housing Trust home within a period of two years was "unusual",
according to ACT Coroner Warren Nicholl.

It served as a stark reminder about how dangerous the drug could be,
he said in the ACT Coroner's Court yesterday.

The court found the fourth man to die in the house, Rudie de Graaf,
40, had died of asphyxiation several hours after taking heroin on
December 24 last year. Police did not believe Mr de Graaf's death had
been suspicious.

However, they had previously told the court they were concerned it was
the fourth drug-related death to occur in the house, and the fact that
they had not found any drug paraphernalia at the scene led them to
suspect the home had been cleaned before their arrival later that morning.

A post-mortem examination of Mr de Graaf had found traces of alcohol,
heroin and cannabis in his system, but found he had choked to death.

The court heard yesterday three other men had died of drug overdoses
at the house. They were John Carruthers, 37, who died on December 11,
1997; Chris Stewart, 36, who had died on October 31, 1997; and Michael
Kirkman, 39, who had died on October 15, 1998.

The tenant of the house at the time of all four deaths, Christina
Feeken, has since moved premises.

Mr Nicholl asked Ms Feeken yesterday if there was any explanation how
so many people had died in the same house in such a short time.

She told the court she could not explain the four deaths, that the
house "did not have a good record", and she agreed it "sounded
suspicious". She said she could, however, explain two of the deaths.

She said Chris Stewart, the father of her daughter, had died in her
toilet 15 minutes after he returned home on October 31.

She said he had gone to the shops at about 8pm with $50 to get his
daughter's dinner and had not returned until 1.30am. When he did
return, she said he was drunk and carrying marijuana.

She said it was common for him to sleep in the toilet, so she had not
become alarmed when he failed to return from the toilet. It was later
found he had died of a heroin overdose.

She said John Carruthers "was not a junkie", but had returned home
from the shops one night with a small amount of heroin and some beer.
She said she had not wanted any of the heroin, but he had continued to
heat it up in a spoon and use it. She told the court that at the time
she had thought if anything bad did happen, she could ring 000.

Carruthers died of drug overdose in the home that night.

Ms Feeken told the court she had thought she had been doing the right
thing when she had allowed the men to use heroin in her home, rather
than using it on the street.

Mr Nicholl asked Ms Feeken "Do people like you who use drugs . . .
appreciate there is always a risk something might . . . go wrong?"

Ms Feeken agreed, but said it was the inexperienced users who were
dying from the drug.