Corby man died of head injuries after falling 15ft into a garden machinery shop

A Corby man who fell through the roof of a garden machinery shop in Corby had recently taken a cocktail of illegal drugs, a court heard today (Thursday, June 17).

The inquest into the death of John Joseph Gemmill, known as JJ to his friends, heard how a Paramedic was called to the scene by the owner of Corby Garden Machinery in St James's Road at about 7.45am on November 20 last year.

The Paramedic found Mr Gemmill, 37, with his legs tangled in some garden equipment which were on top of him. About 15ft above him was a large hole in the roof.

A statement read to the court said: "I arrived on the scene at 7.48am and found a male lying on his back with two lawmower machines on top of him."

There was no pulse present and a defibrillator reading showed that Mr Gemmill's heart was not beating.

A police officer on the scene identified Mr Gemmill by taking his fingerprints and matching his face to a mugshot taken a month before when he had been arrested by officers.

A toxicology report after his death found the cause of death to be a traumatic head injury and cocaine, amphetamine and opiate misuse. There was evidence that Mr Gemmill had recently taken all three of the drugs.

Coroner Anne Pember ruled that Mr Gemmill's death was an accident.

The inquest did not explore the reasons for Mr Gemmill being on the roof of the premises although police told the Northants Telegraph at the time of his death that they believed he had been attempting to burgle the business following a string of reports of people climbing on to the roof to test how long it would take for alarms to be triggered.