TEENAGER DIES IN VILLAGE DRUG RAID

Accident inquiry set to follow mysterious death of 19-year-old during home
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A FATAL accident inquiry is likely to be carried out into the death of a
Buchan teenager in the middle of a police raid.

Senior Grampian Police detectives arrived in the coastal village of
MacDuff yesterday to investigate the circumstances surrounding the collapse
of 19-year-old Ross Strachan. Detective chief Superintendent Keith Wilkins
head of Grampian CID, said his inquiry will be carried out according to set
guidelines for deaths in police custody. Under that protocol, police
submit a report to the procurator-fiscal who then formally orders the fatal
accident inquiry.

Strachan had been visiting a friend in a council house in MacDuff's Clergy
Street when four local police officers raided the house as part of a series
of drugs-related operations across the Banff and Buchan area on Friday
night.

A house several doors up from the location of Strachan's death was raided
at the same time, with police making one arrest and finding only a minor
quantity of cannabis. Wilkins said Strachan had collapsed and died in the
house, despite attempts by police to resuscitate him. Efforts by
ambulancemen, called to the scene, also failed.

A post mortem, involving detailed toxicological tests, was begun yesterday
but it will be several days before the cause of Strachan's death is known.
Asked if there had been any physical struggle hetween officer and the
teenager Wilkins replied: "It's very difficult to answer that question at
this time but that's an aspct that we will look at and the whole
circumstances will be reported to the procrator fiscal."

The tenant of the council house where Strachan died was interviewed several
times by police both on Friday night and yesterday but has not been
arrested. The man, who saw Strachan's collapse, refused to comment
yesterday. However he told his girlfriend and several neighbours of his
shock at what happened, but did not disclose the events leading up to
Strachan's death.

Neighbours brought bouquets of flowers to the house yesterday, describing
Stradian as a quiet, healthy teenager who would often do favours and run
errands in return for food and shelter. He no longer stayed at his family
home and had lived rough for some time sleeping at a succession of friends'
homes.

These friends were quick to deny suggestions yesterday that the young man
could have heen involved in hard drugs, or heroin abuse, which is rife in
the coastal communities of the north-east.

"He never had any money and to be honest he was a bit slow," said one man
yesterday. He may have smoked the occasional joint of cannabis but he
always said he would never touch hard drugs."

There have been 18 deaths caused by drug abuse in the north-east this year.
Grampian Police refused to disclose why the houses were raided last night,
nor would they say how many arrests had been made. They also refused to say
if drugs had been found in the house where Strachan died.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)