Ecstasy poisoning killed schoolboy

Ben Hennessy had just made an anti-drugs film

A 15-year-old Hertfordshire schoolboy died of an ecstasy overdose a week after his film about the dangers of drug abuse was shown on cinema screens, an inquest has heard.

Ben Hennessy, of Francis Avenue, St Albans, lost consciousness after taking up to four-and-a-half ecstasy tablets, the Hatfield coroner was told on Tuesday.

Paramedics found Ben sweating and shouting incomprehensibly in the garden of his grandparents' home in St Albans in July last year.

The hearing was told that Ben, along with a friend who cannot be named for legal reasons, had taken up to two tablets the previous evening at a local teen nightclub.

Ecstasy 'novice'

The day he died Ben, a pupil at Townsend Church of England School, took another two-and-a-half tablets.

His brother Lee, 20, found him and took him to their grandparents' home in Green Lanes where the family called 999.

The "fit and healthy" GCSE student was taken to Hemel Hempstead General Hospital where he later died.

The inquest heard his temperature was 42C - compared to a normal body temperature of 37C - and that he died of cardio-respiratory arrest.

Pathologist Nat Carey, who carried out a post mortem on Ben, said the massive rise in body temperature had meant vital organs had been unable to work properly.

He had suffered a cardiac arrest because his heart could not cope with such high temperatures.

He gave the cause of death as ecstasy poisoning.

Dr Carey said toxicology tests on two paper wraps found in Ben's body showed traces of the designer amphetamines that make up ecstasy.

He said traces of cannabis had also been found.

The pathologist said that Ben had been "a novice" concerning ecstasy and the large amount he had taken meant his body had reacted badly to it.

Cautionary tale

He also said the fact that it had been crushed into powder form meant absorption would have been quicker and could have made it "more dangerous".

The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Ben's short film, Mixing It, which he wrote and shot, is the cautionary tale of a youngster who collapses and dies after mixing drugs.

The film, a result of a government-funded initiative, was screened for the first time at the UCI cinema at Hatfield's Galleria just days before Ben died.