Daughter of ex-Private Eye editor killed by overdose

The daughter of former Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams lay dead for up to 36 hours in a bedsit after injecting a fatal dose of heroin, an inquest heard today.

"Witty and vivacious" Margaret Ford, known as Jubby, was found dead in the flat in Brighton in May last year after losing her battle against drink and drug addiction.

The body of the 39-year-old mother of three was discovered when a concerned friend asked the caretaker to let him in after trying the flat and getting no response.

In a statement the friend, William Joll, said: "I could see the lights were on. I knew the caretaker had a key so I went to get him.

"As I walked into the room I saw Margaret lying on the floor. I took one look at her and realised she was in a terminal condition. I felt her wrist, it was cold, very cold. I didn't feel a pulse."

The caretaker, John Jordan, told the inquest in Brighton he had seen Mrs Ford a week earlier with a scruffy man and she had "seemed out of it".

A month earlier she had returned from Dublin after spending several weeks at a convent retreat for people with alcohol-related problems and friends hoped she had successfully kicked her drug habit.

The inquest heard Mrs Ford died from a fatal dose of heroin, and that the level of alcohol in her blood was twoanda-half times the legal drink-driving limit. She and her satirist father, who did not attend the inquest, were extremely close. He gave up drinking more than 30 years ago because of his own problems with alcohol.

Ingrams, 66, now editor of the Oldie magazine, also has a son, Fred, 40, who is an artist.

A second son, Arthur, who was disabled, died in childhood.

Mrs Ford had been married for 14 years to David Ford, an executive with society caterers The Admirable Crichton, but had recently moved temporarily from the marital home in Lewes, East Sussex, because of her health problems.

Mr Ford, the son of Sir Edward Ford, a former private-secretary to both the Queen and King George VI, did attend the inquest but was too upset to comment.

Concluding the inquest, coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deely said she believed Mrs Ford may have been a "less frequent and more naive" drug user than others.

She added: "What happened to Jubby could, but for the grace of God, happen to any one of us. She was a witty, vivacious woman with a wayward streak whose presence could light up a room.

"It never ceases to distress me that such a person as this should have died in this way because of this pernicious drug, heroin.

"It's such a dreadful, dreadful, waste and I think she did her best but it seems sometimes one's best is not enough and heroin will win. I have no way of knowing if she intended to kill herself but I think it is unlikely she did."

Verdict: accident.