A runaway teenage girl worked as a prostitute to buy drugs in the days before her death of a heroin overdose in a Dublin city-centre guesthouse, an inquest heard yesterday.
Ms Kim O'Donovan (15), of Newtown House, Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow, had absconded from the care of the East Coast Area Health Board and was the subject of a High Court order before her death on August 24th last, Dublin City Coroner's Court was told. Mr David Lynch, who was with her at the time of death and who raised the alarm, said he met Ms O'Donovan on August 20th. They met up again the following day and after she worked as a prostitute in Fitzwilliam Square she gave him £40 to buy heroin. They stayed in The Pillar bed and breakfast in Talbot Street and smoked the heroin.
Again on August 23rd she worked as a prostitute and gave him £60 to buy heroin. He bought 1 1/2 grammes in Ballyfermot and they went to the B&B. He "cooked up" half the heroin and gave her about one-third of it which she injected into the back of her hand. She fell asleep and later that night he used the rest of the heroin.
When he woke about 7 a.m. he kissed her and found her lips were very cold and he could not wake her. He ran to telephone for an ambulance. He did not know if she had used heroin before but she told him she had used ecstasy the night before they met.
Mr Tony Dunne said he was a security man for The Pillar. Most of the rooms were rented by the health board. On August 23rd he met Mr Lynch outside the guesthouse and told him that it was against the rules to take anyone into his room. At that time Ms O'Donovan seemed well.
State Pathologist Prof John Harbison said a post-mortem examination showed Ms O'Donovan to be a healthy young woman but the toxicology report showed 0.3 micro grams of heroin per millilitre of blood. Studies showed this was the average lethal dose for a newcomer to heroin abuse. He found no evidence of prolonged heroin abuse and gave the cause of death as respiratory depression due to a heroin overdose.
Sgt Gerard Wall, of Store Street Garda station, said he found drugs paraphernalia including swabs, syringes and needles in the room occupied by Ms O'Donovan and her companion.
He added that Ms O'Donovan's disappearance had been notified to the Garda but the facsimile photograph available was of very poor quality.
The jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure and added the recommendation that better quality photographs of missing persons should be circulated to aid identification.