Brothers died of overdose

Two brothers from the Isle of Man died from an overdose of MDMA, an inquest has heard today (Tuesday, April 28th).

Former Castle Rushen High School pupils Jacques and Torin Lakeman, aged 20 and 19, died in December during a visit to Greater Manchester.

They were found dead in a room above a public house in Bolton.

Coroner Alan Walsh this afternoon expressed his condolences to the brothers' parents, describing their grief as ‘unimaginable’.

Bolton Coroner’s Court heard Torin and Jacques had up to six times the lethal limit of ecstasy in their blood.

The MDMA - the active ingredient in ecstasy tablets - had been ordered from an anonymous vendor, via a browser used to access the so-called dark web.

Aspiring chef Jacques and Torin, a second-year physics student at Aberystwyth University, watched a Manchester United match on the Saturday (29 November) before returning to the pub where they were staying that night.

Their bodies were discovered in their room on the Monday morning.

As a result of the tragedy, coroner Alan Walsh today said he would write to Home Secretary Theresa May about the buying of illicit substances online – something he said, as a father and grandfather, he found to be a frightening prospect.

He ruled both men died from misuse of ecstasy.