Recent use of heroin was likely to have played a role in the death of Peaches
Geldof, an inquest has heard, in a tragic echo of the death of her mother.
The body of the 25-year-old mother-of-two was found on April 7 at the home she shared in Wrotham, Kent, with her husband, Tom Cohen, and their two young sons, Astala, 23 months, and 11-month-old Phaedra.
At the opening of her inquest in Gravesend, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Fotheringham of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said a post-mortem examination was inconclusive, prompting further tests. But he told the hearing: “Recent use of heroin and the levels identified were likely to have played a role in her death.”
It marks a parallel to the death of her mother, TV presenter and writer Paula Yates, who died from an accidental heroin overdose at her London home aged 41 in 2000.
A date for a full inquest into the death of 25-year-old Ms Geldof is due to be set some time in late July.
A post-mortem examination carried out at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford proved inconclusive, prompting further investigations.
At the funeral service in the village of Davington, near Faversham, Ms Geldof’s body was carried into church in a poignantly-decorated coffin which included a picture of her young family.
Her father, Bob Geldof, is thought to have led tributes in front of a host of well-known personalities, including the Duchess of York, supermodel Kate Moss and former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman.
The church, St Mary Magdalene and St Lawrence, was where Ms Geldof married musician Mr Cohen in 2012. It was also where her television presenter mother Paula Yates married Geldof in 1986.
Ms Yates’ funeral was held there after she died from an accidental heroin overdose in 2000, aged 41.
Former Boomtown Rats singer Geldof has previously paid tribute to his daughter alongside his partner, Jeanne Marine, and Ms Geldof's sisters, Fifi Trixibelle, Pixie and Tiger, saying she was the "wildest, funniest, cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us".
PA