Alcoholic woman took accidental overdose, finds inquest
An alcoholic woman from west Belfast spoke on the phone to her estranged husband hours before dying from a drugs overdose, an inquest heard today.
Carol Maguire, 44, accidentally poisoned herself with a lethal dose of the antidepressant Dothiepin at her Skegoneill Avenue home on March 13, 2003, senior coroner John Leckey found.
The victim, who had been drinking heavily, was a registered alcoholic and had been on antidepressants for some time.
Her separated husband, Noel Maguire, said: “She appeared to be heavily intoxicated and was not making a lot of sense.
“I didn’t think that anything was wrong because she frequently contacted me by telephone when in this condition.”
Mr Leckey, whose court was sitting in Belfast, expressed his condolences to the dead woman’s family.
“The deceased died from an accidental dose of the antidepressant, the effect of which caused her death,” he said.
He added that the delay in holding the inquest, which had been mentioned by Mr Maguire as a source of distress, was not satisfactory and had contributed to the burden imposed on the grieving family.
