Trainee psychologist, 27, died after taking cocktail of drink, cocaine and legal highs with boyfriend after securing new job helping drug users

Jennifer Whiteley was hired by the NHS to help drug addicts

She took cocaine and Benzo Fury at her family home with boyfriend Andrew Tunnah

But 27-year-old went into cardiac arrest and died in hospital

Inquest hears she had traces of nine different drugs in her system



Tragedy: Jennifer Whiteley died of an accidental drug overdose after securing her new NHS job with boyfriend Andrew Tunnah

A psychologist who had secured a job working with drug addicts died after taking a legal high bought from a notorious website.



Jennifer Whiteley, 27, took Benzo Fury with her boyfriend, which he had bought on online drugs marketplace The Silk Road.



At an inquest into the death of the former A-star pupil’s death yesterday, her parents said they were shocked she had taken drugs as it was completely out of character.

Her mother, Claire Whiteley, condemned those who peddle legal highs.



‘I just want to publicise as much as possible as to how dangerous it is and that people who are selling them don’t give a toss,’ she said.



‘All they want to do is make more money. They’ve made millions out of these. People now think that it’s not going to happen to us. It obviously happens to us.’



The inquest heard Andrew Tunnah, Miss Whiteley’s boyfriend of eight years, bought the drug legally on The Silk Road in January. Web users could purchase any kind of drugs on the website, which was shut down by the FBI last month.

Mr Tunnah bought 5APB and 5MAPD – 5APB is also known as Benzo Fury. Miss Whiteley – who was working as a mental health carer and had seen her articles published in the Journal of Health Psychology – received a job offer from the Pennine Trust in Lancashire in July.



She spent the weekend at her parents’ house in Sale, Greater Manchester, with Mr Tunnah while her parents were away.



Miss Whiteley consumed both 5APB and 5MAPD as well as cocaine and a small amount of alcohol. At about 5am Miss Whiteley started sweating profusely and collapsed after going into the bathroom to cool down.



She was unconscious when an ambulance arrived and died the next day.



Her father Ted Whiteley said yesterday: ‘It seems ludicrous that she would have taken as many drugs as she has.



‘I find it very hard to believe that she would have done that. She was very knowledgeable.’ Mrs Whiteley said: ‘What we don’t really understand is how she would take something that would increase her heart rate when she had been having panic attacks. I know she was very aware because of her job.’



In her new job, Miss Whiteley would have been working with the early intervention team which helps those in the early stages of drug abuse, among others.

Her mother said: ‘She was really, really happy. It was the next stage. She was trying to expand her field of knowledge so that she could get into a course to be a health psychologist.’



Police found more than ten bags of illegal drugs and legal highs at the property.



In June, the Home Office put a temporary class drug order on Benzo Fury which makes it illegal to manufacture, import or supply the drug but not to possess it.



Coroner Joanne Kearsley recorded a verdict of misadventure and concluded that Miss Whiteley’s death was caused by ‘fatal drug toxicity’.