Coroner rules Pete Doherty's friend WAS killed by heroin injection from fellow junkie 

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Pete Doherty's former bandmate Alan Wass was killed killed unlawfully after a friend injected him with heroin, an inquest has found. 

Former Libertines guitarist Wass, 33, collapsed moments after he was injected with the £15 shot at his home in Ladbroke Grove, West London.

Westminster Coroner's Court heard Wass spent 11 days in a coma at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington before he died.  

Mr Wass, a close friend of Doherty and one-time band member in the Libertines, first shot to notoriety along with friend Pete Doherty when they were filmed smoking crack cocaine with Goldsmith heiress Robyn Whitehead, who died hours later from a heroin overdose.

Westminter Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox heard Mr Wass met with some friends to go to see Norman to inject drugs. 

Musician Alan Wass, pictured, died 11 days after being injected with  heroin in April 2015

Wass, left, was formerly a member of The Libertines along with Pete Doherty, right

He became the third death linked to the so-called 'Curse of Pete Doherty after being given the £15 shot of heroin.

Westminster Coroner's Court has heard three of Mr Wass's friends - Mr Campbell, Marcel Donald and Martin Dillon - were present at the flat on 15 April.

The inquest was dramatically halted in May when Mr Campbell was arrested for manslaughter following Mr Dillon's testimony that he had seen him (Campbell) inject Mr Wass.

But it was confirmed by the Metropolitan Police today that Mr Campbell was no longer under investigation. 

Mr Wass tragically slipped into a state of unconsciousness and died 11 days after the injection at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington on April 26, 2015.

Two earlier inquests into Mr Wass’s death had been cut short - the first, in July 2015, after senior coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox ordered the Met to re-examine DVD recordings of his death.

The second, in May this year, was dramatically halted after one witness, Martin Dillon, admitted he watched Campbell inject heroin in Mr Wass’s arm, because he had lost function in it after an accident.

Mr Dillon’s evidence conflicted with what he had told police, so officers at the inquest stopped the hearing and arrested Campbell on suspicion of manslaughter, but no charges were ever put and the case was dropped.

Wass, pictured, collapsed in Norman Campbell's home in Paddington, West London in April 2015

And this morning, at at third and final hearing, senior coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox played an audio enhanced video of Mr Wass playing guitar, before taking his shirt off and asking Campbell for a 'clean needle'.

Dr Wilcox said: 'I draw the court’s attention to Alan asking for a clean needle'.

Mr Dillon was then called to the stand and admitted he watched Campbell injected Mr Wass with heroin.

Dr Wilcox asked him: 'Did you see Norman Campbell inject Alan Wass with heroin?' 

Mr Dillon replied: 'Yes.'

The court heard that in a police interview with Mr Dillon after the last inquest, he told police on 22 separate occasions that he saw Campbell inject Mr Wass, but also said on three occasions that he 'just assumed' he had done it.

Dr Wilcox asked: 'Did you see it, or did you assume it?'

He said: 'It’s really hard to remember what I saw. I suppose I assumed it, on the basis that I had been injected by [Campbell] and that’s why he was there, really.

Mr Dillon added: 'Me and Alan both smoked heroin, but we didn’t inject. We didn’t know how to do it.'

The court also heard from Wass’s GP, who said: 'I would like to confirm that looking through his notes, I am unable to find any evidence that he ever injected drugs.

'He was known to smoke heroin, but did not inject.'

Wass spent 11 days in a coma before dying at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, West London

Campbell ran into Mr Wass and his friends and fellow junkies, Martin Dillon and Marcel Donald, in the street and was invited up to his flat to inject them with heroin.

Campbell told the Westminster Coroner's Court: 'There were already used syringes with blood in them in the flat, on the table, on plates.'

Campbell admitted that he had injected heroin in the past, but denied that suggestion that Mr Wass, who only smoked the drug, had asked him to him.

He said: 'No, he was too drunk. He couldn't stand up. Before he went in the flat, he fell over. He wasn't really in a fit state.'

Senior Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox asked: 'Were you asked to inject him with heroin?'

The inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court, pictured,  continues

Campbell replied: 'He may have asked, but I didn't hear.'

Dr Wilcox asked: 'Did you inject Alan with heroin? The answer to that may open you up to criminal charges and you don't have to answer it.'

Campbell said: 'No.'

The court earlier heard from Mr Wass's GP that despite his history of smoking heroin, there was no evidence he had ever injected the drug.

And at an previous hearing it was also revealed that Mr Wass had fallen through a window at his home in the weeks before and severed an artery.

He received a blood transfusion in the street and lost sensation and dexterity in his arm and hand.

Dr Wilcox said: 'If you didn't inject him with heroin, who did? Marcel was smoking crack. Martin was on the sofa.'

Campbell said: 'He was doing it earlier on, and he f***** it up. That's all I can assume he's done. There was used syringes in the flat, before we got there.'

Dr Wilcox said: 'I put it to you that you are not being entirely honest.'

Campbell made no comment.

Summing up her findings, Dr Wilcox said: 'I don't know whether this was a chance meeting or not. I cannot decide from the evidence.

'Martin Dillon said he contacted Marcel and Norman with the deliberate intention of meet so Norman could inject drugs.

'We heard from Martin Dillon that the plan was to inject heroin. They had got needles and syringes.

'I am satisfied that Alan did collapse from heroin.

'He had a small haematoma at the front of his left elbow entirely consistent with an injection of drugs into his arm.'

Dr Wilcox said both Mr Dillon and Mr Donald had heard Mr Wass ask for a needle.

She said: 'It is only Norman who apparently didn't hear that.

'Norman admitted he did know how to inject, but that he had just come up to smoke heroin.'

She added that when Mr Wass asked for a 'clean needle' he 'was not facing Martin to his right or Marcel, he is directing these questions to where Norman is.'

Dr Wilcox noted that Mr Wass had 'exceptionally poor motor control' of his arm following the 'significant and serious injury' he had suffered in February.

'I make the logical inference that to put a tourniquet on, raise a vein and inject into that vein, when you are naive drug user...is nigh-on impossible.'

'Even if we didn't have all this supporting evidence, the evidence from Martin was that Norman made up the syringes because he was the one who knew and that he had injected him, Martin, and then Alan.

'Alan couldn't have injected his arm in this way, so somebody else in that room had to have done it.

'It wasn't Martin, it wasn't Marcel. I find that it was Norman.

'I make a finding of fact that whether [Martin] saw it or just assumed it, that's what happened.

'In my view, this is a one-off injection. This is the only injection site found by the London Ambulance Service.

'I find a verdict of unlawful killing fully made out in this case.'