Luke Sharp, who was a children’s charity trustee in Rochdale, accidentally killed himself when he took the morphine
A children’s charity trustee accidentally killed himself when he took morphine he found in a friend’s kitchen after two days of drinking red wine, an inquest heard.
Luke Sharp, 20, inadvertently overdosed on morphine when he discovered an open bottle of the drug in a friend’s kitchen before going to bed.
The youngster – a young trustee of The Children’s Society and a local authority campaigner at Rochdale Council, in Greater Manchester – was found unresponsive later that day and was pronounced dead despite efforts to revive him.
Tests showed he had died from a combination of morphine poisoning and alcohol intoxication.
An inquest heard in the hours before the tragedy, Luke had consumed a box of wine with a friend despite being hungover following a previous night’s drinking.
It is feared he may have drunk the morphine when he woke up on his friend’s sofa at 2am.
Luke, from Castleton, near Rochdale who hoped to be a project worker had been studying business administration and social work after being taken on an apprentice-type scheme with the local council.
He used his experiences as an adopted child in the foster care system to become a trustee at the Children’s Society and work in its shops and was also member of the Children’s Commission on Poverty which investigates how poverty affects children in schools.
An inquest heard he used his experiences as an adopted child in foster care to become a trustee at the Children’s Commission on Poverty
The tragedy occurred last May after he made arrangements to meet up with a friend Andrew Ludlow.
Mr Ludow told the Heywood inquest: ‘I received a message from Luke at about 8.30pm and arrangements were made for him to come to my flat. We had a few drinks together and he was quite drunk when he arrived.
‘We had a bottle of wine between us and a couple of glasses of cider. Luke seemed to be okay, he was quite happy and chatty.
‘He left mine at about 1am and he was very drunk and I advised him not to go home on his own by the he insisted he was okay. At 12.30pm the following day he returned to my flat and we spent the day together. He was quite hungover and he finished off the cider he had left the night before which I wasn’t particularly keen on.
‘He was drinking till about 4pm and then went shopping to Lidl and we bought some food and a box of wine and went back to the flat about 6.15pm. Luke fell asleep in front of the TV so I went to bed and left him.
‘At about 2am I woke him up and he came to bed – he was intoxicated but I wasn’t aware that he had taken any drugs. I woke up at about 8am and he was still asleep, I could tell because I could hear him snoring.
‘I went back to sleep and woke up about 1.30pm when I got a text from a woman who comes round to help round the house. I was up and dressed at this point and Luke was still asleep and snoring. I later went to wake him up and that was when I realised there was something wrong.
Mr Ludow was advised to perform CPR on Mr Sharp (pictured left and right) before the ambulance arrived
‘I rang an ambulance and they told me to start performing CPR. An ambulance arrived about five minutes later but it was too late.
‘I keep my morphine in a cupboard in my kitchen but I didn’t see him consume any. I had another couple of bottles in a safe in my bedroom but Luke didn’t have access to these.’
Det Insp Kenneth Blaine of Greater Manchester Police said: ‘I attended the scene and saw the bottle of morphine and Mr Ludlow said he had taken his dose.
‘He said he thought there was an inch less than the night before but that he had not seen Luke drink any.
‘We ruled out any third party involvement and when we looked at Luke’s phone we could not see any evidence that he intended to take his own life.’
Luke’s sister Jennifer Corey said: ‘On the 15th of May I bumped into Luke and he seemed cheerful and I was supposed to meet him on the Thursday that week.
‘I text him on the Wednesday and got no reply but this wasn’t unusual but as time went on I got more concerned.
‘At 4.15pm on the 17th of May I got a call to say he had been found deceased.’
Recording a conclusion of misadventure, coroner Lisa Hashmi said: ‘Luke appeared to be in relatively good spirits and had been socialising with Mr Ludlow. I believe he consumed the morphine, failing to appreciate quite how dangerous that might be especially to a naïve user.
‘I don’t believe that he did this deliberately and I believe he failed to appreciate the very serious consequences of Morphine.
‘He failed to appreciate how toxic it might be and consumed far too much.’