A husband has been accused of covering up his wife’s death from a drug
overdose while on honeymoon in Cambodia by a coroner who questioned why he
called an insurance firm on the day she died.
Kristy Cadman-Jones died while on holiday in Cambodia Photo: Hotspot Media
Damian Cadman-Jones, 31, was on honeymoon in Cambodia with his new wife Kristy
when she died in her sleep in the couple's room in the capital city of Phnom
Penh.
The pair had been married for six months when they decided to travel to south
east Asia as part of a dream four-week trip, taking in Thailand and Vietnam
before travelling to Cambodia.
But on January 9 this year, Mrs Cadman-Jones died in her room at the Regent
Park Hotel in Phnom Penh.
At the inquest into her death at Leicester town hall, where the couple were
married in July 2011, Deputy Leicestershire Coroner Donald Coutts-Wood heard
how the 27-year-old recruitment consultant died after taking heroin, which
she mistakenly believed to be cocaine.
Her cause of death was given as morphine and codeine toxicity that was as a
result of taking the drug.
But Mr Coutts-Wood challenged Mr Cadman-Jones regarding his involvement in her
death, referring to the fact that insurance firm Zurich had been contacted
on the day of the tragedy.
He also asked solicitor Mr Cadman-Jones about his decision to have his wife
embalmed, something that could affect toxicology tests because it could
dilute levels of drugs found in the bloodstream.
The inquest heard that both he and his wife held life insurance policies with
Zurich but Mr Cadman-Jones said it was not him who contacted the company.
The coroner asked him: ''Did you have any involvement in the referral to
Zurich about a claim on that policy on the 9th of January?''
He also told the inquest he made the decision to have his wife embalmed so
that his wife's mother, Carol Heslop, who did not travel to Cambodia after
her daughter's death, could say goodbye to her daughter.
The coroner asked him: ''Why were you so desperate to have your wife's body
embalmed within 48 hours of her death?''
''Because Kristy was an only child and I was told that if embalming was to be
done it had to be done within 48 hours, and I just wanted Carol to be able
to say goodbye to Kristy,'' Mr Cadman-Jones said.
Referring to an email he sent to the British embassy stating his intention to
have his wife's body embalmed, Mr Coutts-Wood asked him: ''Was the purpose
of that email, to get your wife's body embalmed, an attempt by you to cover
up any toxicology that could be done?'' ''No,'' Mr Cadman-Jones said.
Mr Coutts-Wood also criticised two different statements Mr Cadman-Jones gave
to authorities.
In one he did not mention that he and his wife had been offered drugs but a
later statement claimed a couple they met had asked if they wanted cocaine.
Mr Cadman-Jones, from Broughton Astley in Leicestershire, said he did not see
his wife taking any drugs on the night of her death and he thought she had
only had one drink.
He believed her death might have been something to do with a sleeping tablet
she had taken or because of the actions of the doctors who attended her.
''I assumed that she had been administered a lethal amount of morphine by an
incompetent doctor,'' he said.
Recording an open verdict into Mrs Cadman-Jones's death, Mr Coutts-Wood said:
"It's clear to me that the lethal level of morphine is due to Mrs
Cadman-Jones using a very pure heroin."
Speaking after the inquest, Leicestershire Police said there was no
information to support a homicide investigation.
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