THIRD FRIEND DIES IN HOUSE OF HEROIN

THREE friends who came into money separately and shared a house died within
six months of each other after becoming heroin users.

Christopher Lea, 29, Marcus Rhodes, 24, and Justin Thacker, 23, from the
fishing port of Brixham, Devon, squandered their wealth on drugs. Lea
inherited pounds 250,000 and the house in Temperance Street where the three
lived after his parents died in a motorbike accident.

Thacker, a chef who had worked as a bar manager at a golf club, had won
pounds 22,000 compensation after being injured in an accident at a holiday
camp. Rhodes, who had inherited and spent almost pounds 50,000, was the
first of the three to die. He was found hanging, having committed suicide,
at Brixham in May last year.

Distraught at his friend's death, Thacker left Devon to live with his
parents in Alicante, Spain. Four months later, while on his way back to
Brixham to visit his girlfriend and two sons, he suffered a heart attack
and died in London.

A month after Thacker's death, Lea's decomposing body was found when
enviromental health officers went to clean out his boarded up home
following complaints about the state of the property. Heroin and syringes
were found in the bedroom close to his body.

Hamish Turner, the South Devon coroner, recorded a verdict of death by drug
overdose on Lea.