Amy Winehouse's ex brother-in-law died of a heroin overdose after he fled from a secure hospital and collapsed in a hotel, an inquest has ruled.
Freddy Civil, the younger brother of the singer's ex-partner Blake Fielder-Civil, died on April 26 last, with coroner Oliver Longstaff ruling this was due to “misadventure”. Jurors were told Freddy, 27, had absconded from Fieldhead Hospital, in Wakefield, before checking into a £40-a-night B&B in Leeds and taking the fatal dose of drugs.
Medics were called to the hotel, where Freddy was staying with a friend and found him face down in just his underpants, and he was tragically pronounced dead at the scene. Blake, who was married to Amy Winehouse for two years, attended the inquest at Wakefield Coroners Court, which heard no external injuries were found on Freddy’s body.
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But Freddy’s mum, Georgette Civil, raised concerns during the inquest about Freddy’s care in the secure mental health unit where he was detained since 2018.
In his closing report, Mr Longstaff said there was evidence to suggest that Freddy had been “frustrated” by the slow progress of his treatment.
He wrote: “The evidence presented to the jury leads us to conclude that Freddy was frustrated by the lack of progress with treatment for substance misuse, his lack of trust for staff at Newton Lodge, the restrictions on his activities at Newton Lodge due to the Covid-19 pandemic and his weight.
“It was evident that Freddy's personal conviction, that his Mental Health Act Tribunal application was bound to fail, in addition to the above factors, motivated his actions on 26 April 2021.
“When Freddy injected himself with heroin, he did not intend either to harm himself or to take his own life.”
The report stated that Freddy died primarily from “heroin toxicity” with “Alprazolam, Promethazine, Mirtazapine and Alcohol Use” contributing to his passing.
Pathologist Lisa Barker, previously told jurors he had a ‘fatal level of morphine’ in his body that was from the injection of Heroin. An internal examination found he’d choked on his own vomit.
The inquest heard Freddy, who was born in Grantham, Lincs., had been made subject to a hospital order by a judge after being sentenced to HMP Leeds for a crime that wasn’t specified.
He had been detained under the Mental Health Act at Newton Lodge, a medium security unit in the grounds of Fieldhead Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorks, since the autumn of 2018.
Jurors were told he had initially been diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia, but that it was likely drug-induced rather than a mental disorder. On the morning of his death, he had been escorted to an area of the hotel where patients can do their banking and withdrawn around £100 cash and bought a drink from a shop.
But on his way back to his wing of the hospital, he gave the staff member escorting him the slip and ran out of the grounds of the unit. Freddy’s mum Georgette Civil had concerns over Freddy’s care at the unit, the court was told.
Her statement read: “Freddy raised a complaint of staff abuse and he needed two-to-one staffing. He was strip-searched by staff who made him perform squats while he was naked from the waist down. Staff also called him a paedophile.
“Freddy was moved around from ward to ward and this didn’t maximise his stability.
“Freddy was suffering from severe Eczema and also suffered from Alopecia.”
Mrs Civil told the court Freddy’s detention was due to end in June 2021 and he was making plans to open a barbershop with her help, as she was a retired hairdresser. But Dr Suraj Shenoy, consultant forensic psychologist at the hospital, said Freddy had become 'frustrated' at being in hospital for so long.
The Dr said he believed Freddy would have been better suited to being treated for drug addiction at home. Blake previously admitted being the person who first gave Amy heroin.
The Back to Black singer died aged just 27 in 2011 of alcohol poisoning after a much publicised battle with drink and drug addiction.
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