A YOUNG man from Witney died from an accidental overdose during a drug-taking session with friends, an inquest heard.

Tom Kennedy, 20, died in the early hours of Saturday, January 14, after taking substances including heroin, cocaine, ketamine, cannabis and morphine.

The fire alarm engineer, of The Crofts in Witney, died at an address in Hailey Road.

Addressing Mr Kennedy’s mother, Cindy Gumm, at Oxford Coroner’s Court yesterday, Oxfordshire Coroner Darren Salter said it was ‘a very sad case’.

He added: “Tom was only 20 years old. For him to have lost his life at that age is extremely tragic.”

In a statement read out in court Dr Helen Bayliss, a GP at Charlbury Medical Centre, said Mr Kennedy had been hospitalised twice in 2012 for accidental overdoses.

In her statement, Mrs Gumm said her son ‘had acquired knowledge of drugs over the years and was very scientific’.

She said this allowed him to be ‘lulled into a false sense of security’ by taking a dose he thought he could tolerate.

On the night of his death Mr Kennedy injected heroin and cocaine mixed up in a ‘speedball’ at friend Michael Ward’s house before losing consciousness.

Friends called 999 and attempted CPR, but he went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead by paramedics at 5.21am.

A toxicology report found 66 micrograms of heroin per litre in Mr Kennedy’s blood as well as alprazolam, a tranquillizer often used as an adulterant in illicit heroin.

Mr Salter recorded a verdict of drug-related death, confirming Mr Kennedy had died of an accidental overdose.