A nephew of crime figure Gerry Hutch whose body was found showing signs of decomposition in his home died as a result of methadone toxicity, an inquest has heard.
A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that Edward Hutch jnr’s body was discovered at his house in Portland Place, Dublin 1, by his neighbour Paul Mooney on May 19th, 2024.
While the inquest heard that Mr Hutch had been seen active some time before his death, his body was found showing signs of decomposition.
It heard Mr Hutch, who was aged in his late 40s, had a history of drug use and had been attending a methadone treatment programme previously alongside attending mental health services, having received a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
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However, he disengaged from all services in December 2020 despite efforts from staff at the National Drugs Treatment Centre to re-engage, though the inquest heard his mental health was deemed stable in the months before his last attendance.
Alongside a high level of methadone, Mr Hutch’s postmortem toxicology results showed evidence of Xanax at an upper therapeutic level and a “very low level” of alcohol in his system.
“You can have these findings in a body that has been decomposed for a while, it can be produced by the body, that’s how low the level was,” said coroner Clare Keane.
Medical notes showed no evidence of prescriptions for methadone. However, Garda Ciarán Cummins told the inquest that an unlabelled bottle of the drug was discovered downstairs in Mr Hutch’s home, suggesting he had accessed it by other means.
Dr Keane noted that while tolerance can be built up to the drug with frequent use, “it’s very different” if one was to take the drug suddenly, having not taken it for some time.
“I’m not entirely clear about what methadone he was or wasn’t accessing, but we do know methadone was there at a high level in his system,” she said.
Dr Keane noted that, regardless of the fact that the drug can undergo post-death redistribution, “the level was very high”.
The medical cause of death was noted as being due to methadone toxicity, while a verdict of misadventure was returned.
The inquest heard that Mr Hutch’s home was in tidy order, indicating his death was not intentional.
His father, Eddie Hutch snr, a taxi driver and brother of Gerry Hutch, was shot outside his home on Poplar Row in Dublin’s north inner city on February 8th, 2016.
The Irish Times previously reported that gardaí believe a file sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions contains evidence that they believe could lead to several men, including Daniel Kinahan, being charged with offences related to that killing.
The file had been sent in February 2024, however, directions are still awaited from the DPP.
