“He had a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone; he would put himself in trouble to protect his friends and he was really close to his family. He was very loving and caring and was always so happy and had a smile on his face, ” said his grieving mother
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A young builder described as the ‘life and soul of any room’ with a ‘heart of gold’ tragically died at a Chorley hotel.
Much loved Kai Marcus Gervis-Brown was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a first floor room at the Premier Inn on Moss Lane just before 9.30am on March 22, after having ingested ‘very high’ levels of cocaine, Preston Coroner’s Court heard yesterday (September 29). An inquest packed by friends and family of the popular 21-year-old heard how Kai, formerly of Lower Hill Drive in Heath Charnock, had been living in hotels since the family home had been devastated by a fire in February and also broken his wrist the previous year, which led to him working less and latterly residing at the Premier Inn where deputy manager Peter Marsden said despite some initial disturbance, Kai was generally ‘quiet, pleasant and easy going.’
Yet other guests complained about music and loud voices coming from his room on the evening of March 21, going on until 2am the following morning. A guest in the room below heard pacing noises, banging and voices the night before, continuing until around 1.30am, when he complained to reception. In a statement, he said: “I know something wasn’t right about the occupants and wanted staff to do something about it.”
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The inquest heard from night manager Jamie Hudson who said he knocked at Kai’s door, until he answered, ‘in good spirits’ and agreed to keep the noise down. But another complaint prompted him to return, getting no response, and the manager said a lady who he took to be Kai’s mother arrived at reception, begging to be allowed in his room, claiming there had been an argument and she ‘really needed to go to the room.’
Yet Mr Hudson said he was obliged to refuse, as per the hotel’s safety and privacy policy, but went back to knock again, to no avail. As the woman back at reception continued to ask for access, he went back up and Kai’s girlfriend answered the door, pushing some money at him for the woman, who left in a taxi a short while later.
The court also heard how Kai’s girlfriend then appeared at reception at around 8am, saying Kai was smashing up the bathroom and asking for police. Receptionist Karen Firth duly went to check the room with deputy manager Peter Marsden, but found no disturbance and just heard the shower running. Karen Firth said: “We were satisfied he was in the shower; we did not believe what the young girl was saying…everything seemed to look fine.” They passed this information on to Kai’s girlfriend, who left shortly after.
But reception then got a phone call from Kai’s mum, who seemed ‘really concerned for her son’s mental state’ urging them to call an ambulance, and she was told staff had already checked and everything was fine. Kai’s frantic mother then arrived in person, ‘very distraught,’ and was taken upstairs to the room with the manager, who then returned asking for an ambulance as Kai was ‘unconscious on the bathroom floor.’
Karen Firth said: “Kai was on the floor, Peter had the defibrillator and Kai’s mother was on her knees next to him.” Attempts to resuscitate him with a defibrillator followed before emergency services arrived. He was sadly declared dead just before a quarter to ten.
Queried on why staff hadn’t entered the bathroom before, receptionist Karen Firth said they were ‘not allowed.’ But Kai’s grieving mother, Joanne Gervis, said Kai had threatened to commit suicide, according to a phone call she had had from his girlfriend’s mother during the disturbance, and asked why staff hadn’t knocked at the bathroom door, asking: “If you go up to a room and you can’t hear anything, when you’ve been told that somebody could possibly commit suicide and you can’t hear anything other than a shower, why wasn’t there a knock on the bathroom door?”
Did you know Kai? Leave your tributes in the comments below
To which the receptionist replied: “Because at that time I hadn’t spoken to you.” She continued: “If somebody is smashing up a bathroom, you’d hear the noise. It was pure silent and it just sounded like somebody was in the shower, and that’s very personal.”
Similarly, deputy manager Peter Marsden denied that at the point when staff went to check on Kai, they were aware of any concerns over mental health or over indulgence claims. Yet the court heard how concerns over mental health were flagged up when Kai’s girlfriend’s mum, Kerry Schofield told the court that she rang the hotel to flag up concerns after a phone call from her daughter who told her Kai was smashing up the bathroom.
Queried on whether he would react in the same way were the same situation to arise, the hotel deputy manager said that it was the first time they had come across the situation, adding: "I would probably knock more and try and get a response, rather than just think he's in the shower." Safeguarding systems were in place, he confirmed to the hearing, but Assistant Coroner Kate Bisset observed that they were to do with personal protection of staff, later asking him if he believed there needed to be more training, to which he said: "Yes."
Meanwhile, Kai’s dad, Marcus Brown, told the inquest how his grief for his son would go on forever and said the hotel’s customer service was ‘massively flawed.’ He told Mr Marsden: “You should have checked on the bathroom – you went for the quiet life. When I was told my son had died, I wanted to scream my heart out, but I didn’t for your residents… the next time I screamed my heart out was at his grave one afternoon.” He told him: “I want you to live with that."
Similarly, Kai’s grieving grandad, Martin Gervis, told Mr Marsden: ”If you had just taken the initiative, opened that door; he’s suicidal, he’s had a lot of drugs. Common sense prevails, and I do know if someone was telling me, I would immediately get in there within that window, and if it was possible, bring them back.”
Queried on when it would be appropriate to enter a guest’s bathroom, Mr Marsden told the hearing: “There are times when you can – maybe this was one of the times we could have gone in.” In a statement read out to the hearing, Kai’s young girlfriend said Kai had asked her to come with him to the hotel that evening, in a statement. He went out and returned with some cannisters of laughing gas and some balloons, and she said they had a few balloons as well as some alcohol.
She fell asleep, only to be woken at around 1.30am by him, ‘agitated, saying people were coming for him,’ and was woken up again at around 8am by Kai screaming from the bathroom and sounding like he was throwing himself against the walls, so she went downstairs and asked hotel staff to call the police.
But staff would not let her back in the room, so she went home, only for police to arrive about an hour later telling her that he had been found dead. Her statement added: “I had asked them to phone police because I was concerned about Kai and they wouldn't let me back in to check on him.”
Detective Inspector Marcus Latham said that there was no third party involvement, and that there were three nitrous oxide canisters in the room and three in Kai’s car, some gold balloons and some cocaine found on Kai’s bank card. Meanwhile, the court heard Kai had been referred to substance misuse service Inspire for a drug rehabilitation programme last December, with telephone assessments in January and February revealing no reports of mental health issues, no suicidal thoughts and that he was actually abstaining from cocaine at the time. A support group had contacted him in March, and an attempt was also made to contact him, but he wasn’t dependent at that point.
The hearing heard how post mortem reports revealed ‘very high’ levels of cocaine in his blood, which would have been within range of fatality, and paramedics called to the cardiac arrest found that rigor mortis had already set in. Alcohol was also present but not in high quantities, as well as ketamine metabolite, although this would also have been unlikely to have contributed to his death.
Coroner Kate Bisset recorded a medical cause of acute cocaine toxicity and drug related death as the conclusion, adding: “I am sorry for your loss.” Kai’s devastated mother, Joanne Gervis, paying tribute to her son, said: “Kai was just the life and soul of any room he walked into.
“He had a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone; he would put himself in trouble to protect his friends and he was really close to his family. He was very loving and caring and was always so happy and had a smile on his face. People called him the class clown – he was constantly making people laugh around him. He was a genuinely really nice, polite young man.”
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