Man's drug death charge quashed

Mr Farnsworth took methadone after drinking and taking ecstasy

A man found guilty of manslaughter after giving his friend methadone has had his conviction quashed on appeal.

Adam Wilson, 28, from Ellastone in Staffordshire, gave 24-year-old Ryan Farnsworth from Hatton in Derbyshire, the heroin substitute in July 2006.

Mr Farnsworth, who had already been drinking and had taken ecstasy, died.

A House of Lords ruling in 2007 found if someone took a toxic substance, the supplier could not be held criminally responsible for a death.

Judges at London's Court of Appeal agreed with Wilson the landmark House of Lords ruling should be applied to his case.

Although Wilson's manslaughter conviction was overturned, his conviction for supplying methadone was not and still stands.

Heroin addict

During the original trial at Nottingham Crown Court, the court heard how Mr Farnsworth had spent the night drinking at pubs in Hilton and had taken ecstasy with his girlfriend.

He was then given the methadone, which Wilson had been prescribed for his heroin addiction.

Wilson carried on drinking while Mr Farnsworth and his girlfriend lay comatose in the back of his car in a pub car park.

Another member of the party noticed that Mr Farnsworth's lips and fingers had turned blue and drove them to hospital, where he later died.

Wilson was originally jailed for four-and-a-half-years for manslaughter and supplying the drug, but his sentence was reduced to three-and-a-half years after he appealed against it.

He has already served this sentence and is no longer in prison.