THE grieving family of a young woman who was attacked by a gang of burglars say they are "waiting for karma" after blaming drug users for her death.

Katie Grace Jackson died at the age of 27 in hospital earlier this year following a suspected drug overdose which caused a heart attack and subsequent brain injury.

It came just months after she fell victim to what a judge labelled a "group invasion" of her home which led to four perpetrators being jailed.

Yesterday her loved ones spoke of the "waste of a life" and pointed the finger at the people she associated with.

At an inquest which concluded her death was drug-related, Miss Jackson's sister Hayley Jackson and mother Susan Jackson said: "I just hope she is happy wherever she is. She was dragged down into that (lifestyle). She was lovely. We're just going to wait for karma."

The inquiry at Crook Civic Centre heard police were called to an address in Blackhall Colliery, near Peterlee, on Thursday, February 16, at about 3am to a report that Miss Jackson was overdosing.

Paramedics treated the young woman at the scene before taking her to University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton-on-Tees, where she was resuscitated but deteriorated and died on Friday, February 17.

Dr Mark Egan, a Home Office pathologist, told the court due to blood samples being taken six hours after admission, the concentration of drugs were at a lower level, leaving him unable to medically confirm a heart attack, which restricted blood flow to the head, was due to drug-taking.

Assistant coroner for County Durham and Darlington, Oliver Longstaff, was told despite this the circumstantial evidence, including healing puncture marks on the body, was "compelling" in suggesting the death was drug-related.

Detective Sargent Chris Woollett said needles, a bottle of pop with a syringe and other drug-related paraphernalia was found at the address.

The court heard statements from two men, Christopher Richie and Edward Mould, who was in a relationship with Miss Jackson, who were in the house at the time of the overdose.

The pair were arrested but later released without charges. In interviews the men gave accounts of the previous 48 hours and denied supplying or injecting Miss Jackson with drugs.

Following a hospital stay for an abscess, Miss Jackson had been living with her mother and was ten weeks clean when she moved back in with Mr Mould about two days before the incident.

Mr Longstaff said while it was not medically proven, it was "sensible and mature" to conclude her death as drug-related.

Earlier this month the fourth intruder involved in an attack and burglary of Miss Jackson at her then Howden-le-Wear home, near Crook, in August last year was jailed.

Joanne Wilson, 36, of Jubilee Street, Toronto, near Bishop Auckland, was sentenced to three years behind bars for burglary and assault.

Gary Rogers, 38, also of Jubilee Street, and Carmel Moore, 43, of Durham Street, Bishop Auckland, were sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison while Clare Shaw, of Woodside, Witton Park, received a sentence of three years and nine months.