"I'm so sorry... it will never happen again": Dad, 27, got hooked on pills bought on 'Counterfeit Street' - he died after taking a huge amount of drugs
23.08.2023 - 19:25
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A young dad whose life spiralled following a break-up died after becoming 'addicted' to drugs bought on Manchester's 'Counterfeit Street'. Junior Collins, 27, was found unresponsive in his Salford flat by his older brother Scott the morning after being 'absolutely off his head' on tablets he bought the same day.
Bolton Coroners Court heard today (August 23) that Scottish-born Mr Collins, who had 'not had a good start to life' and lived with paranoid personality disorder, regularly took drugs he believed to be pregabalin. Danielle Thorpe, his former long-term partner, said Mr Collins was so intoxicated 'he couldn't speak' on the phone the night before he died.
Battling tears throughout the inquest, Miss Thorpe said her ex had 'got so addicted to that high of being out of it' in the months before he died on April 19. She told the court she had a 'regular argument' with her ex-boyfriend about his substance use - insisting he was 'not in any fit state' to see his son, Calvin.
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Miss Thorpe said she called Mr Collins every day and in the last conversation she held with him, two days before he was found dead, he had admitted recently taking drugs again. "He could have seen Calvin every day if he wanted to but not while he was taking drugs," she said.
"He said, 'Danielle I'm so sorry, it will never happen again, I promise it's not going to happen'." She says the pair had made plans to go out the following weekend with Calvin, and that Mr Collins had promised to buy his son an Xbox game, which he did purchase.
But when she called him the evening before he died, Miss Thorpe says Mr Collins was so intoxicated 'he couldn't speak'. Miss