A SEX offender died in his bedroom at a York probation hostel after taking heroin, an inquest was told.

Staff from Southview Hostel in Boroughbridge Road said they had tightened up procedures since Steven Fishwick’s death last April, including more robust drug tests and welfare checks.

Residents were also being encouraged to use external drug agencies such as Lifeline more.

The inquest heard staff members had tried to save Fishwick with CPR and then a defibrillator when he was found unresponsive in his room, before paramedics arrived and also tried in vain to revive him with their own defibrillator.

 

York Press:

Fishwick’s roommate, Steven Ormerod , told how they had gone into York city centre the previous day and drunk alcohol on the riverside before Fishwick had told him he was going to ‘score’ - take heroin.

He said: “There were other lads doing it as well. I wouldn’t call any of them heroin addicts.”

Asked if he had any concerns for Fishwick’s health, he said he had not wanted to be hypocritical, as he was himself an ex-addict.

He said that when he awoke the following morning in their shared room, he heard Fishwick breathing noisily and took a video of him as a joke. He said he thought his mate was snoring and wanted to show him the video clip when he woke up.

Mr Ormerod said he wondered if he could have done anything to save him if he had realised Fishwick was dying. “I am always going to feel bad,” he said.

Coroner John Broadbridge told him: “Life is full of if-onlys and you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it.”

He said blood and urine tests had shown the presence of drugs including morphine.

He said there was no evidence anyone had harmed Fishwick or he had deliberately harmed himself and concluded his death was drug related.

The Press reported last spring that Fishwick, 33, of Albemarle Street, Hull, had convictions for sexually assaulting children and also for robbery and violence and that it was reported by the Hull Daily Mail in September 2015 he had been jailed again by a judge at Hull Crown Court after being caught in a field with two young girls.

He had already been barred from unsupervised contact with children and it was the second breach of a sexual offences prevention order in just four months.