Inquest into Hardy Bucks star's death warns of danger of combining drink & drugs

Irish Daily Mirror

24-04-2025

'The dangers of combining alcohol and drugs cannot be overestimated', a coroner warned on Thursday after returning a verdict of misadventure at an inquest into the death of a 37-year-old actor following a stag party in Westport, Co. Mayo, last August.
The inquest into the death of Alan 'Ali' Carter, of Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo, who made his name as DJ Scorpio Lyons on the RTÉ comedy series, Hardy Bucks, was conducted by the Coroner for Mayo, Dr. Eleanor Fitzgerald.
On August 26 last, Mr. Carter attended a stag party in Westport before going back with three friends to an Airbnb on the outskirts of the town, where they all consumed cocaine.
Evidence was given to the hearing that the deceased took DMT (Dimethyltryptamine), a hallucogenic drug, in the early hours and went into a seizure from which he failed to recover.
In a Garda statement read into the record at today's inquest, one of the actor's friends said: 'Ali put powder in a pipe. He could not sit still. He was rolling around on the ground. We administered CPR and called an ambulance.'
Consultant pathologist Dr. Tamas Nemeth, who carried out a post-mortem examination, gave the cause of death as acute heart failure due to a heart attack caused by cocaine.
Dr. Nemeth explained that Mr. Carter had a heart issue, with up to 80 per cent stenosis. He said the cause of death was the level of cocaine combined with stenosis and the death, in his opinion, was due to unnatural causes.
The pathologist outlined that cocaine has been implicated as trigger of acute myocardial infarction both in patients free of coronary artery disease and more frequently in patients with underlying coronary atherosclerosis. He said Mr. Carter has suffered from severe coronary sclerosis, with up to 80 per cent segmental stenosis in the coronary artery system.
The deceased's partner, Lorraine, informed the corner that Ali had been born with an enlarged heart, had high blood pressure, had childhood sleep apnoea and was overweight.
Coroner Fitzgerald spoke of the normality nowadays of people drinking and having cocaine and warned of 'the risk of sudden death in certain people'.
She continued: 'That risk is not recognised and not understood. The dangers of taking alcohol and drugs cannot be overestimated.
'It is such a pity, such a tragedy, that a young person, out celebrating, that his young life ended in such a manner.
'However, this is the reality of what we are dealing with. We don't want to be losing our loved ones to avoidable death.'