AN account of how a 20-year-old drug addict came to die in his girlfriend's bed was "less than convincing", a coroner said yesterday.

Police initially arrested Jayne Refail on suspicion of the murder of Scott Gillespie but did not press charges due to a lack of evidence.

Yesterday, the 30-year-old mother-of-two failed to attend an inquest into the death of Mr Gillespie, at her home in Mond Crescent, Billingham, in April 2001.

Teesside coroner Michael Sheffield heard how Ms Refail told a paramedic that Mr Gillespie had overdosed on co-proxamol at about 3am on the morning that he died - something she later denied when questioned by police.

She said she had taken two sleeping pills and woke in daylight to find Scott lying dead beside her.

Several notes were found in the house. One, signed by Scott Gillespie, asked for his belongings to be passed to his mother. A second note, "apparently" written in a different hand, asked for the children not to be split up.

But, PC Richard Simms told the inquest that while Mr Gillespie did not have children, Ms Refail has.

Her statement said she woke up and saw empty packets of tablets on the bed.

But, Mr Sheffield said the conversation remembered by ambulance service personnel and the evidence of the letters written in a different hand made Ms Refail's evidence "less than convincing.''

He said there are a number of possibilities including what may have been a suicide pact. Recording an open verdict, Mr Sheffield said the evidence did not fully disclose the cause of death.