A coroner recorded an open verdict on the death of a woman whose husband faced tough questions during the inquest about his involvement in the death of his bride from a drugs overdose as they honeymooned together.
Damian Cadman-Jones, 31, and his wife, Kristy, were celebrating their marriage in Cambodia when tragedy struck. The pair had been married for six months when they decided to take their honeymoon and visit south-east Asia in a dream four-week trip, taking in Thailand and Vietnam before travelling to Phnom Penh. Kristy Cadman-Jones died in her sleep in the couple's hotel room at the Regent Park Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 9 January this year.
At the inquest into her death at Leicester town hall, where the couple were married in July 2011, deputy Leicestershire coroner Donald Coutts-Wood heard how the 27-year-old recruitment consultant died after taking heroin, which she mistakenly believed to be cocaine.
Her cause of death was given as morphine and codeine toxicity that was as a result of taking the drug.
In unusual scenes in the coroner's court, Coutts-Wood challenged Cadman-Jones regarding his involvement in her death, referring to inconsistencies in statements and the fact that insurance firm Zurich had been contacted on the day of the tragedy. The inquest heard that both he and his wife held life insurance policies with the firm but Cadman-Jones said it was not him who contacted the company.
The coroner asked him: "Did you have any involvement in the referral to Zurich about a claim on that policy on the 9th of January?"
Cadman-Jones answered: "No. On the 9th?"
"The day your wife died," the coroner replied. "No, there's no way," Mr Cadman-Jones replied.
Coutts-Wood also asked Cadman-Jones about his decision to have his wife embalmed, something that could affect toxicology tests because it could dilute levels of drugs found in the bloodstream. He told the inquest he made the decision so that his wife's mother, Carol Heslop, who did not travel to Cambodia after her daughter's death, could say goodbye to her daughter.
The coroner asked him: "Why were you so desperate to have your wife's body embalmed within 48 hours of her death?"
"Because Kristy was an only child and I was told that if embalming was to be done it had to be done within 48 hours, and I just wanted Carol to be able to say goodbye to Kristy," Cadman-Jones said.
Referring to an email he sent to the British embassy stating his intention to have his wife's body embalmed, Coutts-Wood asked him: "Was the purpose of that email, to get your wife's body embalmed, an attempt by you to cover up any toxicology that could be done?" "No," Cadman-Jones said.
Coutts-Wood also criticised two different statements Cadman-Jones gave to authorities.
In one he did not mention that he and his wife had been offered drugs but a later statement claimed a couple they met had asked if they wanted cocaine.
Cadman-Jones, from Broughton Astley in Leicestershire, said he did not see his wife taking any drugs on the night of her death and he thought she had only had one drink. He believed her death might have been something to do with a sleeping tablet she had taken or because of the actions of the doctors who attended her.
"I assumed that she had been administered a lethal amount of morphine by an incompetent doctor," he said.
Recording an open verdict into Kristy Cadman-Jones's death, Coutts-Wood said: "It's clear to me that the lethal level of morphine is due to Cadman-Jones using a very pure heroin."
He went on: "It may be unsatisfactory to people and it leaves unanswered questions, but under the inquisitive system we have, we have to have a means of declaring that the exact circumstances remain unknown."
The coroner discredited Cadman-Jones' evidence, saying there were too many contradictions in his various accounts for it to be credible.
Coutts-Wood said one of the verdicts he might have reached could have been unlawful killing, but he did not have evidence beyond reasonable doubt to come to this conclusion.
"If persons referred to as Terrence and Jess provided drugs to Mrs Cadman-Jones, she believing that it was cocaine but in fact was heroin, which I do find that it was heroin, that would be an offence by that person – possibly murder but more likely manslaughter."