JAILED: Barry Hatwell

A HEROIN addict has been jailed for three years for manslaughter after admitting killing a man by injecting him with heroin.

Barry Neil Hatwell, 35, of no fixed address, gave Paul Daly a shot of heroin because Mr Daly had asked him due to a fear of needles.

But a few hours later Mr Daly was found dead in a squat in Christchurch Road, Boscombe and died due to the dangerous cocktail of heroin and alcohol.

Winchester Crown Court heard that on June 2 last year Hatwell, Mr Daly and two other men had taken a large commercial drinks fridge from the squat and sold it to buy heroin.

All four men returned to the flat and Hatwell cooked up the heroin and drew it into four separate syringes.

The two men and Hatwell injected themselves before Hatwell injected Mr Daly.

Hatwell later left the squat and the two other men fell asleep - one woke to find Mr Daly dead.

Three people were arrested at the scene and Hatwell was arrested the following day.

Initially Hatwell denied the offence but later admitted injecting Mr Daly with heroin by consent.

He was charged with manslaughter, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison.

A post mortem examination found that Mr Daly died due to heroin toxicity, exacerbated by consumption of alcohol.

A report from a Home Office pathologist said: "The amount of alcohol present was relatively moderate.

"However, alcohol is itself a respiratory depressant which would have worsened the effects of heroin in this case."

Mr Daly, 34, lived in the Charminster area and worked for a supermarket in Boscombe.

DS Craig Travers of Bournemouth Police, said: "This case highlights the fact that if you are a heroin user and other people are giving you heroin you can never know the strength of what you are taking."

7:00am Monday 18th February 2008

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