A pregnant British woman with no history of drug abuse died of acute heroin poisoning in a hotel room in Ghana, an inquest heard today.
Charmaine Adusah, 41, from Arbroath, Angus, was discovered in the bath by staff at Mac Dic Royal Plaza Hotel in Koforidua, where she had been staying with her Ghanaian husband, Eric.
Mr Adusah, 28, a Christian pastor, was charged with his wife’s murder in Ghana but the case collapsed due to lack of evidence – and an inquest has now been held at Essex Coroners’ Court.
Mr Adusah was present at the hearing today along with Mrs Adusah’s mother, Linda Speirs and stepfather Peter.
The court heard that the couple had checked into the hotel together after travelling to the country for work connected to Mr Adusah’s church.
The pastor checked out of the hotel on March 18, 2015, telling staff not to disturb his wife, who was due to leave two days later. When Mrs Adusah failed to check out, hotel staff checked the room and discovered her body in the bathtub.
Authorities in Ghana discovered heroin, codine and morphine in her system. An interim autopsy report issued the week after she was found indicated a heroin overdose as a cause of death.
Doctor Charlotte Randall carried out a second post-mortem examination when Mrs Adusah’s body was returned to the UK.
She told the court that she had found traces of heroin, codeine and morphine but no evidence of assault or prolonged drug use.
Dr Randall said she could not ascertain the cause of death from her findings but did accept the findings from the earlier examination held in Ghana.
Mrs Abdusah’s body had remained in Ghana while the case against husband was on-going but was later returned to Britain.
The pastor, a leader of Global Light Revival Ministries Church in North London, told the court: ‘I have no idea what happened, I don’t know how it got into her body, I never seen her do anything like that’.
Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Smith from Essex Police confirmed that there was no drug paraphernalia found at the scene or signs of how it was administered.
The attorney general in Ghana claimed there was no evidence connecting Mr Abdusah to his wife’s death.
Mr Smith added: ‘Mr Adusah was arrested and charged in Ghana and spent a number of months on remand there and on bail and they found no direct evidence linking him to the death of the deceased.
‘In Britain we would call that insufficient evidence, I believe that it the correct decision.’
Senior Coroner for Essex Caroline Beasley-Muarry dismissed conclusions of unlawful killing, suicide or an accident due to lack of evidence.
She said: ‘Because of the insufficient evidence for any of those conclusions I shall record an open verdict. We shall never quote know what happened there just is not evidence.’
Mrs Beasley-Muarry said this was a difficult and unusual case.
Addressing the family, she said: ‘She [Mrs Adusah] clearly was a striking woman, attractive and with a bright future in front of her and was clearly much loved and I would again like to express my sympathies to you.’
Mr Adusah broke down in tears as he left the inquest, surrounded by parishioners.
Mr and Mrs Speirs spoke outside the court following the conclusion. Mrs Speirs said: ‘If he does something else, it will catch up with him. It has been a long time coming.’
When asked if they hold Mr Adusah responsible, she said: ‘We don’t know if it was him or someone else that did it to her. I just don’t know.’
And speaking of Mr Adusah, Mrs Speirs said of the verdict: ‘It is still hanging over him. It’s open, so it will hang over him for the rest of his life.’
Commenting on whether her daughter could have used heroine, she said: ‘She would not have done it, we know that for a fact, she just would not have done it.’
Mr Speirs said the inquest was ‘done well’. Mrs Speirs added: ‘It didn’t go into great details but we know, we know the rest.’
Mr Adusah was unavailable for comment after the hearing. His church in Tottenham describes itself as a growing international, multi-cultural Christian church and also has a branch in Edinburgh.
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