February 19, 2001 10:14: RECOVERING heroin user Richard Millar had been fighting to overcome his addiction when a last small dose proved fatal.

A High Wycombe inquest heard how the 25-year-old production runner had been receiving treatment to help him overcome his drug addiction and had not been using heroin for some time when the tragedy struck.

His father, Robert Millar, of Trees Road, in Hughenden Valley, High Wycombe, confirmed the death of his young son had come as a 'terrific shock'.

He told the inquest on Thursday that he discovered his son lying on his bed after going into his room in October last year to turn off his alarm clock.

He said: "I entered Richard's bedroom to turn off the alarm which was sounding. He was lying fully clothed on the bed and was not breathing."

Mr Millar tried to revive his son and phoned the emergency services but Richard died after taking a 'small dose' of the drug he had been fighting to give up.

Mr Millar added that although he had not seen anything lying next to his son's body at the time, police later found a syringe and a spoon in his son's bedroom drawers.

The inquest heard how Richard had been undergoing treatment, including getting an implant inserted in his arm to help neutralise the need for the drug.

However, Tom Grace, assistant deputy coroner for Buckinghamshire, said that even though the dose of heroin taken was thought to be small, because he had been abstaining for some time it could have had a much more dramatic effect on a heroin user.

He gave a verdict of accidental death and told the inquest that Richard had tried to cure himself of a drug habit and he was perhaps unaware of the "dramatic and very serious effects heroin can have in small doses when one has been abstaining from its use."

Syreeta Lund