Police wrongly suspected my brother died from taking drugs, now I want to clear his name

Georgia Moore, from the West Park area, has spoken out to clear her brother’s name after police officers at Northumbria Police suspected that drugs had caused his death.

On Tuesday, July 16, Jamie Moore was taken to South Tyneside District Hospital where he later passed away, prompting Northumbria Police to put out a warning about a ‘bad drugs batch’ due to two other deaths in South Shields on the same day.

Jamie’s family has revealed they told officers in the wake of his death that the 41-year-old didn’t take drugs, other than occasionally smoking cannabis.

But following the warning on social media, Georgia said her family had been approached many times by people wrongly under the impression he had taken a fatal amount of drugs after seeing the police’s appeal.

His family are now trying to set the record straight and clear Jamie’s name.

According to the coroner’s ruling Jamie died due to a coronary artery atheroma with thrombosis.

Georgia has spoken about the pain that it has caused her family due to how Jamie’s death has handled by Northumbria Police.

The 40-year-old: “Jamie hadn’t even been taken to the hospital when a police officer had told us that two other people had died due to drugs - he was in the police’s statistics before he had died.

“We told them that he wasn’t involved in drugs but it felt like the police were just hell bent on pursuing this as a drug death.

“They’ve made our lives a complete and utter hell because people who knew Jamie have been asking us if he took drugs and it is having a really impact on the family - both of my parents are not well and Jamie was living with them as their carer.

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“There was no care or compassion from any of the police towards what we were feeling, all it seemed like was they cared about was their statistics.

“We want his name to be completely disassociated with what they had originally said about it being a drug death - we want justice for Jamie because his name has been slandered.

“There wasn’t even an apology for what they had put us through.”

Northumbria Police were approached for a comment.

The Shields Gazette understands that Northumbria Police are currently in correspondence with Jamie's family regarding the matter.