Friends unknowingly covered dying man’s face with sauce as a joke

Friends of a man who was dying from a drug overdose at a house party in Co Donegal unknowingly covered his face in food and condiments and filmed it as a practical joke, an inquest has heard.

James Devlin was found dead by friends outside a house in Ballybofey on May 26th, 2018. The 35-year-old had been socialising all evening and had consumed alcohol, tablets and methadone.

A statement from the dead man's friend, Laura Sheehan, was read out at the inquest before coroner Dr Denis McCauley at Letterkenny Courthouse.

Ms Sheehan said Mr Devlin and some friends met in a bar in Ballybofey where they drank a lot of alcohol before returning to her apartment at Finn Farm, where they continued drinking and ordered a takeaway.

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Mr Devlin fell asleep at the apartment and began to snore loudly.

Another friend, Samantha Malley, who described Mr Devlin as “like a brother”, said she put some sauce on his face as a joke.

According to Ms Sheehan’s statement, this escalated and others at the party put vinegar, mayonnaise, other sauces and pizza in Mr Devlin’s mouth. She said his face was covered in food.

Ms Sheehan said she wanted to clean the mess in the house and Mr Devlin was taken outside unconscious. He was left outside and after a while one of the men at the party shouted, “He’s dead, he’s dead”.

Ms Sheehan said Mr Devlin, with an address at Dillon Court, Strabane, Co Tyrone, had stopped snoring and that his lips were blue. An ambulance was called and several people attempted CPR. Paramedics worked on Mr Devlin but he died at the scene.

A post mortem showed the presence of substances including methadone in Mr Devlin’s body.

Coroner Dr McCauley said he was satisfied that the cause of death was multiple drug toxicity and that Mr Devlin died as a result of cerebral depression.

He said the foodstuffs placed on Mr Devlin’s face were not a factor in his death as there was no sign of asphyxiation.

He added: “James went asleep and went unconscious and his brain turned off which meant his heart and lungs turned off then.”

Dr McCauley recorded a verdict of death by misadventure and expressed his sympathy with Devlin’s five sisters who had travelled from Glasgow for the inquest.