A WARNING has been issued after a student died from taking drugs he may have bought from an illegal website.

Patrick McMullen, 17, from Puddletown, was home alone when he took MDMA and LSD before collapsing on August 31.

The teenager, who studied at The Purbeck School, had aspirations to go on to Cambridge or UCL (University College London).

Police officers have been sifting through data from Patrick’s computers and have found conversations referencing the Silk Road website, an inquest was told.

Silk Road was a website shut down by the FBI in October that used encrypted digital currency ‘bitcoins’ from trading illegal goods.

Although investigations are still ongoing as to whether this was the place Patrick bought the drugs, a friend told the inquest Patrick had talked about a delivery of drugs in the days leading up to his death.

Recording a verdict that Patrick died from the abuse of drugs, coroner for Dorset Sheriff Payne warned drug users.

He said: “You never know the purity of what you are taking and you can easily come unstuck, despite years and years of knowledge.”