Bethany Terry found dead in Brighton home

Bethany Terry, known by her friends and family as “Bea”, had hopes of completing her degree in criminology and psychology at Brighton University.

Her mother, Ruthanne, said the 27-year-old’s mental health had deteriorated and she had become hooked on drugs when she moved to Windsor Court in Brighton.

Ruthanne said: “My brother went in there to visit her and came out traumatised.

“The place is just awful and no place for a vulnerable woman when there are drug addicts in the building.

“Only days before her death we got the ball rolling for her to be housed somewhere safer back home.

“I get the shivers when I get off the train in Brighton.”

“One man gave her a meal but then came to her room soon after and requested sexual favours in return for what he had done.”

Bethany’s older sister, Kayleigh Loffhagen, said her vulnerable sibling was solicited for sexual favours. 

She said some residents living nearby showed very exploitative behaviour towards Ms Terry.  

The inquest in Brighton heard the aspiring student was found dead in her bedroom by her neighbour and the caretaker.

Bethany was described as bright and intelligent by her family.

But she had struggled for many years with mental health issues, including depression and emotionally unstable personality disorder.

She had diabetes and struggled to move around because of a nerve problem in her leg and an infected toe.

She was regularly using heroin and crack cocaine when living in Brighton, and butane canisters were found near her body.

Her mother told the court that Bethany never took drugs when she returned home to Oxford to visit her family.

They would instead “curl up on the sofa and drink tea”.

But the student was recorded on CCTV the night before she died speaking to several men in a well-known drug-dealing spot near Poundland in North Street, Brighton, the inquest heard.

Detective Sergeant Mark Pinder of Sussex Police said Bethany’s volatile former partner, who was also a drug addict, had not been with her at the time of her death, but he may have made contact over the phone.

But DS Pinder did not treat the death as suspicious.

He told the court that it was clear from where Bethany had been in North Street and Air Street that she had been buying class-A drugs.

She was also known as a regular drug user, but was treated as a vulnerable adult by the police, the inquest heard.

Her mother and sister told the court she had been self-medicating with hard drugs to help her cope with the difficult feelings ahead of her grandmother’s funeral on October 27 last year in Oxford.

She had also been grieving for an aunt she felt very close to, who died just one month before her own death.

Pathologist Dr Mark Taylor said the post mortem revealed the cause of Bethany’s death was heroin toxicity, with butane gas as a contributing factor.

He told the inquest: “Butane is a volatile substance, to the point where it’s a bit like heroin. There is no safe level of it. It blocks the heart’s beating rhythm.

“I would certainly include this as a contributing factor to her death, but the likely cause of death is heroin because that is what we found.”

Bethany had been in the care of Sussex Partnership Trust and was regularly checked on by her lead practitioner Peter Bull.

Mr Bull said he had been suspicious about the young woman using butane.

He told the court that despite this, and knowing that she spent hundreds or even thousands of pounds on crack cocaine and heroin, he had not wanted to challenge her substance misuse.

He said: “If I challenged everything then it would risk alienating her.

“If I was to ask her questions, I didn’t want it to come across as accusatory. She needed someone helping her who wasn’t questioning her. I didn’t want her to feel like she couldn’t talk about the things I wanted her to talk about with me.”

Volatile

Bethany had been concerned that if she left her home for more than several days she would be kicked out, the court heard.

Mr Bull said he had assured her she would not be made homeless, given her disability and needs.

He said the drugs had perhaps caused major anxiety.

Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley suggested there should have been someone else stepping in and challenging her drug use.

She said: “Poly-substance misuse is a recipe for chaos.

“She definitely had more than one bullet in the chamber.

“As I always say with taking heroin, it’s a bit like Russian Roulette, especially with butane as well.”

Mr Bull said he suspected Bethany’s home at Windsor Court had been used as a base by drug dealers who exploit vulnerable users in a process known as “cuckooing”.

Rebecca Agnew, lawyer for Sussex Partnership Trust, said the housing association for Windsor Court had been aware of an intruder “preying on disabled patients” in October, and had been “addressing matters”.

Ms Hamilton-Deeley recorded the cause of Bethany’s death as heroin toxicity and concluded it was a result of misadventure.

She said: “From the findings of heroin in her blood, it’s likely she was using it that evening.”

Her emotionally unstable personality disorder, substance misuse and the likeliness of butane inhalation were noted as significant contributing factors as well as the recent death of her aunt and grandmother.