??/??/?? - Leah's death was due to ecstasy

A VERDICT of accidental death caused by the non-dependent abuse of a drug has been recorded on Essex teenager Leah Betts.

An packed inquest at Chelmsford yesterday heard coroner Dr Malcolm Weir tell Leah's father Paul and stepmother Jan: "I would like to pay tribute to the stoicism and strength of character of the Betts over the last two months.

"I hope all their efforts in bringing to the public forum all the dangers of ecstasy will be listened to by those who expose themselves to this drug. "If it prevents one more fatality, then Leah's death will not have been in vain.

The inquest heard Dr Paula Lannis, a Home Office pathologist, confirm that the cause of death was ecstasy poisoning with the post mortem examination revealing that the brain had swollen.

She said the drug causes deregulation of the brain which then disrupts its functions and added there was 0.209 milligrammes of ecstasy per litre of fluid in her body.

"There is no safe level for drugs," she told the inquest and in a reference to the retention of water that caused the brain to swell she said: "Anything that develops from taking ecstasy is a complication."

The inquest heard Dr John Henry, who works at the national poisons information unit at Guys, say if Leah had taken the drug alone she may have survived or if drunk the water alone, she may have survived.

"It was the effects of the drugs and the water that resulted in the kidneys not being able to pass water out and the brain to swell. "Ultimately it was the ecstasy that killed her."