A MEDICAL expert has told a manslaughter trial that a “cocktail of mixed spirits” consumed in one go by a man who later died of alcohol poisoning could have rendered him unconscious and was a “huge dose” of alcohol.
Graeme Parish (26) downed between eight and 10 measures of spirits from one glass while celebrating his birthday at Hayes’s Hotel in Thurles, Co Tipperary, on June 30th, 2008.
Former clinical director at the National Poisons Information Centre, Dr Joseph Treacy, told Nenagh Circuit Court such an amount would have caused a 200mg spike in his blood alcohol level. Toxicology tests found the deceased had 375mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system.
Bar manager at Hayes’s Hotel, Gary Wright (34) and barman Aidan Dalton (28), both with addresses at Kilfithmone, Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary, have denied a charge of the manslaughter of Mr Parish.
The trial heard Mr Parish, a civil engineer from east Lancashire in England, died of acute alcoholic poisoning. The prosecution alleges the two bar workers were guilty of “gross negligence” in allowing Mr Parish to be served a single drink containing up to 10 measures of spirits on the night of his 26th birthday.
Father-of-two Mr Parish died on the night of June 30th, 2008, while staying at the hotel after coming from England on a work project. Five colleagues were with him while he was drinking in the hotel bar.
One of those, Simon Turner, said Mr Parish asked people to race him in drinking pints of Guinness. Later, he had “a cocktail of mixed spirits” and bet that he could drink that faster than one of the others could drink a half-pint of lager. Asked who put the mixture in a pint glass, the witness said it was the bar staff.
He told Dermot Cahill, for Mr Wright, he had been out with Mr Parish “several times” during the seven years he knew him. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen Mr Parish challenging people to a drinking race. “I’d seen it a few times.”
The court heard Mr Parish was found unconscious by a night-porter at about 6am the next day and was pronounced dead at 7.15am on July 1st.
Pathologist Dr Stephen Finn carried out a postmortem later that day at Limerick Regional Hospital. His examination of the body found “nothing remarkable” and there was no evidence of vomit in the victim’s windpipe.
Following toxicology tests, which showed a blood alcohol level of 375mg, he concluded that the cause of death was acute alcohol intoxication. “Those are very high levels of alcohol.”
Dr Treacy said a fatal dose of alcohol for a man of Mr Parish’s weight – about 100kg – was between 400mg and 800mg per 100ml of blood. “It’s a huge dose,” he said in relation to drinking up to 10 shots of spirits in one go, adding that it could have made him unconscious.
The trial continues today.