A ‘loving and giving’ woman ‘took shelter in drugs’ after a traumatising rape which sparked her addiction, according to her family.
Catherine Devitt, 56, was found unresponsive at her home in Richardson Street, Eccles, on November 16 last year, Manchester Evening News reports.
Minutes later Catherine was pronounced dead by paramedics and when doctors later carried out post mortem investigations, they discovered the medical cause of death was multiple drug toxicity.
Reports show there was a high dose of amphetamines, methamphetamines and caffeine - this follows a familiar pattern of Catherine’s addiction which started when she suffered a traumatising sexual assault, according to her mother.
Bolton Coroners Coroner's Court heard how Catherine was a ‘loving and giving’ person, who would ‘give her last pound to anyone who needed it’, as the inquest into her death resumed on July 15.
But Catherine, who was born and raised in Salford, had long suffered with her mental health and drug addiction which led her to exhibiting two very different personalities.
“Catherine struggled with drugs and illicit substances, it affected her, it changed her personality and the way she behaved,” said devastated mother Catherine Caswell in a statement read out in court.
“She was a lovely woman, but when the drugs got the better of her, sadly she was not such a lovely woman.”
Tragically, the drug addiction began after Catherine suffered physical abuse and rape while in relationships ‘that were negative for her’ over the years, claimed Ms Caswell.
“Her jaw had been broken, her leg. [Some time after that], she went through a bad rape, a horrendous rape.
“She just changed. That’s when she started taking drugs.
“Cather was just like two people, I did look after her, it wasn’t neglect.”
Catherine’s sister-in-law, Gaynor Merryshore, added: “I knew her for 33 years.
“When I first met her, she was a lovely, friendly, quite loud person.
“When I had my children, I would take my youngest child to Catherine’s bed sit and stay overnight.
“We had a positive, strong, trusting relationship. But that became difficult when I discovered she had difficulty with drugs and that was causing her to behave the way she did.
“Her drug addiction got worse and worse. It had a great impact on her.
“The last two times I saw Catherine - one time she was aggressive and unpleasant, the second time was friendly and was making conversation.
“That epitomised her two personalities.”
In the months before her death, Catherine presented at Salford Royal Hospital’s accident emergency department.
Doctors on the ward assessed her and observed that she was behaving ‘erratically’, was visibly ‘unkempt’ and not taking care of herself, as well as being concerned that she was suffering a ‘physical illness’.
Catherine was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and transferred onto a psychiatric ward - treatment she had been through in previous years - between July 16 and July 27, 2020.
At first, medics believed she was showing ‘psychotic symptoms’ but, as the drugs left her system, Catherine became ‘pleasant’.
She told doctors she ‘wanted to work in the community with her social worker to stop using drugs’ following her discharge from hospital.
Catherine continued to live in supported accommodation for vulnerable people in Richardson Street, where she would often be visited by her social worker, according to staff at the complex.
Again, Catherine would go through periods where she was ‘difficult’ before some weeks where she would seem ‘really engaged’ and meet with staff daily, said her support worker, Emma Watkins.
But despite the insight Catherine appeared to have into her drug habit, and desire to stop using, attempts to get in touch with her by Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) teams failed.
Catherine did not answer calls from mental health practitioners and missed appointments.
However, internal investigations done by GMMH found that communications between mental health liaison teams based at Salford Royal and home treatment teams were lacking.
Attempts to reach Catherine and start work to help her reduce her drug intake were delayed as liaison staff believed she had been discharged, while home treatment staff believed she was still in hospital.
In addition, high volumes of staff absences due to Covid-19 gave way to long waiting lists for appointments also delayed Catherine being able to get help, said Michael Hartley, who led the report by GMMH’s governance body.
Yet, the investigation found that there may not have been a different outcome in Catherine’s case had improved measures been taken given her history of unstained engagement with mental health services.
Mr Hartley apologies to Catherine's family on behalf of GMMH and said the learning will be implemented across the service's operations.
Just four months after the psychiatric intervention at hospital, she was sadly found dead.
Emma described to the court the tragic scene as she found Catherine unresponsive in her home.
“A neighbour had reported concerns for Catherine because she had not been seen over the weekend. I knocked on her door and there was no answer. I looked through the window and saw her lying on the floor between her toilet and back door.”
The support worker rushed to the back of the property and climbed over the fence in an attempt to get to Catherine, calling the police and ambulance.
A paramedic then arrived and smashed through a window to find Catherine with blood on her head.
She was pronounced dead shortly after.
Police searches concluded there were no suspicious circumstances or third party involvement.
During investigations after Catherine’s death, it was discovered that there was a cocktail of drugs in her system at the time of her death, according to toxicologist Julie Evans.
Amphetamine was found at a level which ‘risked toxicity’, along with methamphetamine and caffeine at a much higher dosage than would normally be expected in a person’s blood.
There was also a number of prescribed drugs, found at therapeutic levels, which Catherine took for medical conditions, including type two diabetes.
Catherine also suffered from hypotension and high blood pressure, ‘making her more vulnerable to the effects of the drugs’, heard the court.
The medical cause of death was given as combined drug toxicity with a background of hypotension and high blood pressure.
The coroner concluded that Catherine experienced a drug-related death.
“Catherine had a difficult life with many challenges and, sadly, she would take shelter in drugs,” Assistant Coroner for Manchester West, Peter Sigee, told Catherine’s family.
“You did everything you could to help her, even when she didn’t want it.”
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