THE INQUEST into the death of the late RTÉ broadcaster Gerry Ryan opened yesterday at Dublin City Coroner’s Court with testimony by his widow, Morah Ryan.
Ms Ryan took the stand briefly and told coroner Dr Brian Farrell that she had formally identified her 53-year-old husband on May 1st, the day after his death. She had travelled to the Dublin City Morgue on Malahide Road, Dublin 9, and confirmed his identity to Sgt Gerard Sexton of Clontarf Garda station.
The sergeant also briefly took the stand, confirming he had met Ms Ryan with her son Rex and recorded the formal identification.
David Kavanagh, who described himself as a good friend of Ryan’s for 30 years, told the court they met at 4pm at the Four Seasons Hotel in Ballsbridge the afternoon before his death. They had a chat and a couple of drinks. Mr Kavanagh had arranged to meet his girlfriend, Rhona Kelly, for a meal afterwards and Ryan asked if he could come along. They went to the Town Bar & Grill on Kildare Street where they also met up with two other friends, Willy Power and Graham Beere.
They had dinner and drinks and Ryan was in “very good form”, he said. At about 10.45pm “Gerry said he wanted to go home”, a taxi was arranged and he was the first to leave, Mr Kavanagh said.
The coroner asked him if Ryan had complained of feeling unwell and he said he had not. They had agreed to meet to discuss a Ryan Confidential programme which featured an interview with Heather Mills, he said. Ryan wanted to look at it at home that night.
Asked by the coroner if Ryan had “taken anything other than drinks” that night, Mr Kavanagh said no. He had “stood up unaided”, he said.
He told counsel for the Ryan family, Brendan Grehan SC, that he was aware Ryan was under a lot of pressure and they had met that afternoon to discuss that.
Also taking the stand, Willy Power agreed with Mr Kavanagh’s evidence. He described the evening as enjoyable and said he arranged for the taxi for Ryan when he wanted to go home. He walked him out to the taxi, he said.
The coroner asked him if Ryan was “unusually tired”.
“No more than anyone else,” Mr Power responded.
Graham Beere told the Coroner’s Court he had arranged to meet Mr Power at the Town Bar Grill and got a call from him asking if it was all right that the other guests came along. He said the evening was “enjoyable and pleasant” and he didn’t notice anything of concern about Ryan’s behaviour. He was relaxed, he said.
The coroner asked if he had complained of breathlessness or chest pain.
“No, it was a shock the next day to us,” Mr Beere said.
The taxi driver who took him home also gave evidence. Alan Wilson said Mr Power had called him and asked him to drop Ryan home. He was in good form during the journey.
“I could tell he had a few drinks taken, but he was not in a bad way,” he said. He asked him to wait while he went into his home for cash, Mr Wilson said. He hadn’t complained of feeling unwell.
Ryan called the producer of the Gerry Ryan Show, Alice O'Sullivan, at midnight that night after returning from Town Bar & Grill. He told her he was feeling exhausted and that he didn't think he'd make it to work in the morning. She told him to take the day off and to rest for the bank holiday. He replied: "I owe you one", she said.
A plumber by trade, Alan Ball, who was working on a building site near Ryan’s home on Leeson Street, said he was approached by “a lady and her son” about lunchtime on Friday, April 30th. They told him they were having trouble getting into a house. They had used their key to open the door, but a security chain was preventing them from entering. He cut the chain for them with a hacksaw, but did not go in himself. Some 10 minutes later he saw an ambulance and gardaí arrive.
Melanie Verwoerd said she had been Ryan’s partner since mid-2008. The last time she saw him alive was the morning before his death. They had contact during the day by mobile phone and their last conversation was at 11.40pm that night. He had complained of feeling tired and told her he was “totally banjaxed”. She had been worried about him, and when she did not get a phone call from him on the morning he died, she called over, but couldn’t get into the house.
She phoned RTÉ and was told he had called in sick and she was relieved, she said.
“I assumed he was asleep and his phone was on silent,” she said. But when she still hadn’t heard from him later in the day, she decided to call over again. She enlisted the help of her son and then Mr Ball to help her get into his home.
When she went into his bedroom, Ms Verwoerd said she was relieved at first because the bed was empty, then she saw his foot “sticking out” on the floor at the far side of his bed.
He was lying on his right side with his head between the locker and the bed. The bedding had fallen with him. Asked by Dr Farrell if she thought there was evidence of rigor mortis, she said yes. His feet and lower body were a strange colour, she said. She called his name and touched him. He was rigid and cold. When they turned him on to his back his arms were in the air, she said.
Ms Verwoerd also gave evidence of the “severe pressure” he was under at the time. His separation was being finalised, she said; he was under enormous financial pressure and was under pressure from RTÉ.
“In the last two weeks, he barely slept,” she said. She said he complained of heart palpitations, dizziness and breathlessness. He also had stomach pains and vomiting and she begged him to see his doctor, but he said it was only stress.
When he received texts or “aggressive” phone calls he would “go grey”, she said.
She had asked him not to go to work on the Monday before he died, but there had been a change in policy in relation to sick leave in RTÉ and he felt if he took the time off it would “send the wrong message”. Ms Verwoerd also said he put on a front while out with other people because he was “a showman”.
“We’d get into the cab and he’d basically collapse,” she said.
He had met Marian Finucane at the Four Seasons Hotel on Tuesday of the same week and he had confided in her, she said. On Tuesday night he could not sleep and he sweated so much she had to change the sheets. On Wednesday she contacted his GP, Dr Tony Crosby, because she was worried about him and the doctor prescribed Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug. He took the drug and felt a bit better.
On Thursday morning he “sounded well” on his radio programme. But at 7.30pm, Ms Verwoerd said she got a call from Ryan’s accountant saying she had been speaking to him and he didn’t sound well. She phoned him, but he told her not to come over.
The coroner asked if cocaine was ever an issue.
“Absolutely not,” Ms Verwoerd responded. One of the “unnegotiable” ground rules of their relationship had been that there would be no drugs. He had promised her, she said.
“I’m confident he kept that promise to me to the night of his death,” she said.
Paramedic Áine Haughey, from Tara Street fire station, then took the stand and described how she had arrived at Ryan’s home shortly before 1pm on the day he died. There were obvious signs of rigor mortis, she said, with “pooling” in the arms and body. But with a colleague she still attached a defibrillator to Mr Ryan’s chest. The reading was “flat”.
Garda Dara O’Brien, from Donnybrook Garda station, gave evidence that the Garda doctor, who pronounced death at the scene, told him Ryan was dead for at least six hours.
Garda Stephen Kenny, crime scene examiner, south central division, told the court “everything was in order” in the bedroom and bathroom when he examined the rooms.
Ryan’s GP, Dr Crosby, said he had sent his patient to a cardiologist in June 2006 and his tests were reassuring. He had no significant coronary artery disease. He was aware he was stressed and had prescribed Xanax and a sleeping pill for him. In 2008, he had also prescribed a short-course drug to help reduce his weight.
Dr Eamon Leen, consultant histopathologist, gave evidence from Canada via Skype. He said he had carried out the postmortem on Ryan. A toxicology screening found his urine was positive for breakdown products of cocaine, which were in low levels. A moderate level of alcohol was also detected in his blood and urine.
“He had a toxic reaction to cocaine,” he said. “Cocaine consumption is the likely triggering event.”
He said the screening indicated that a trace amount of benzoylecgonine, a breakdown product of cocaine, was in Ryan’s blood.
His urine was positive for both benzoylecgonine and cocaethylene, a combination of cocaine metabolites and alcohol. The metabolites had a potentially toxic effect on the heart, Dr Leen said, and cocaine and alcohol were more toxic than cocaine on its own. Levamisole, a veterinary medicine which is commonly used “to cut” cocaine, was also detected, as was codeine.
The pathologist agreed with the coroner that the levels of breakdown products of cocaine found in Ryan’s blood and urine indicated recent use of the drug.
The postmortem also indicated Ryan had chronic damage to his heart, which could have been due to previous cocaine use or a previous viral infection which attacked his heart. He said in a damaged heart the addition of cocaine made the risk of a cardiac event greater.
He had a level of coronary artery disease which the pathologist said he wouldn’t regard as significant.
“Cocaine consumption has caused the toxic reaction to his heart. There is no other likely pathology that can explain this.”
Counsel for the Ryan family Brendan Grehan SC pointed out that Ryan had symptoms of dizziness, panic attacks and shortage of breath before his death and asked if this could have contributed to his heart failure. Dr Leen said he could not speculate.
“Some of these symptoms overlap with the effect of cocaine itself,” he said.
The coroner said Ryan’s heart condition meant death could have occurred at any time from a cardiac arrhythmia – an electrical disturbance in the heart – but he added it is known that cocaine causes such disturbances or dysrhythmias.
“This is a sudden, unexpected death in the presence of a significantly damaged heart with recent cocaine use as a significant risk factor,” he said.
He recorded a verdict of death by misadventure. The coroner expressed his condolences to the Ryan family and to Ms Verwoerd on Ryan’s death.
“He was a very well known broadcaster and I think there was genuine grief in the community at the time of this death. The burden of grief falls on you all. On behalf of the community, I want you to know how much we all empathise with you in your grief,” he said.