A coroner has hit out at the sale of chemical remedies over the internet after a Canterbury woman died after taking a potent cocktail of tablets and booze.

Raphaella Baker had drunk well over the lethal level of alcohol and taken pills when she was found submerged in a bath with her legs taped together on January 3.

An inquest in Canterbury heard that the 28-year-old had been in a spiral of decline in the weeks leading up to her death, prompting questions over her state of mind.

Miss Baker had bought the tablets online because she wanted to be able to relax and sleep.
But coroner Alan Blunsdon said: “It is a concern that these drugs are readily available.

“She obtained these drugs, but it turned out that they were contrary to the purpose that she wanted – to sleep – and were labelled not fit for human consumption.

“There are dangers with buying tablets online. Raphi had difficulties sleeping and these were aggravated by the very tablets she was taking for dealing with them.”

The inquest heard that Miss Baker returned from a spell in Greece last year and went to the house in St Stephen’s Hill that she shared with her mother, Antonia Farr, and sisters, Flavia, 26, and Bianca, 24.

She had started a teaching course at Canterbury Christ Church University, but her mother soon became concerned about her well-being.

“I had discussed my concerns with her, but she was listening less and less and I thought she was becoming delusional,” Mrs Farr said.

“She thought everyone hated her and did not think her friends cared for her. When I tried to get her help, she thought that I was against her. She had lost her grasp of reality.”

Miss Baker was admitted to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital on December 31 following concerns for her well-being, but she was hostile to a mental health worker.

Bianca said her sister had been “discombobulated” and “clearly intoxicated” that day.

She said Miss Baker’s room had been full of small white pills which appeared to give her energy and made her unable to sleep.

The house Mrs Farr and her daughters live in is owned by Silvester Mazzarella.

On January 3, Mrs Farr had called the mental health crisis team, but Miss Baker refused to talk to them and became abusive.

Mrs Farr said she left the house to avoid a confrontation.

Mr Mazzarella told the hearing that Miss Baker then ran herself a bath. He became worried when she had not emerged after several hours and called for an ambulance.

Clinical team leader Damian Hart was first on the scene and broke into the bathroom, where he found Miss Baker submerged in the Victorian tub.

The paramedic found an empty whisky bottle in the room and a glass filled with tablets on the table next to the bath.

He also discovered that her legs had been bound together with masking tape.

“Rigor mortis had set in and her temperature had dropped to about 20 degrees,” Mr Hart said. “I did not attempt any form of CPR.”

Acting Det Sgt Richard Lown attended the scene and explored why Miss Baker had taped her legs together.

“I could find no conclusive answer except perhaps that she may have had restless leg syndrome and had wanted to relax,” he said.

Mr Blunsdon said that Miss Baker had more than twice the level of alcohol needed to put her in a coma and well over the fatal level.

Ruling out a verdict of suicide, the coroner said: “She had consumed too much alcohol. It was in the fatal level and well beyond the amount needed to induce a coma.

“It’s probable that she slipped into a coma and slipped under the surface of the water.”

Mr Blunsdon recorded a verdict of misadventure.

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