A member of the Saudi royal family was found dead in his £600-a-night London hotel room after detoxing at the Priory.
Prince Abdullah bin Fahad bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Jalawi al Saud was almost three times the drink drive limit and had mixed alcohol with the party drug GHB, an inquest heard.
He was found dead in his bathroom at the Marriott Hotel in Kensington, west London, on November 25 last year. An inquest at Inner West London Coroner’s Court heard that the 29-year-old had checked in on November 19 for a one-week stay.
Discovery and toxicology
He was last seen on CCTV the evening before his death going outside to smoke a cigarette. However, later on a cleaner came into his locked fifth floor room and found him fully clothed, lying on the bathroom floor. Hotel security and the ambulance service were called, but they were unable to resuscitate him and he was pronounced dead.
A toxicology report heard that the young royal had a blood ethanol concentration of 222mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, well above the drink-drive limit of 80mg and in a range where it could possibly cause coma. He also had potentially fatal levels of the so-called ‘party drug’ Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) as well as traces of cannabis, the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam, better known as Xanax, in a recreational dose and other anti-anxiety medicines in therapeutic doses.
Treatment history
The court heard that the deceased had been struggling with the use of alcohol and Xanax. He had been an inpatient in August last year at the world-renowned Priory Clinic in Roehampton, south west London, where a stay can cost as much as £35,000 a week. There, he was detoxed from alcohol, benzodiazepines and the anti-anxiety drug Pregabalin.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Victoria Chamorro said he had “engaged well” and the detox had “proceeded without physical side effects.” “He was supportive and kind to his peers, making friends,” she said in a statement. “He was assessed as having symptoms of low mood and anxiety on admission. When he was discharged he was considered not to be at risk of suicide. He was discharged with a friend but then failed to attend scheduled Zoom appointments. Nevertheless there was no concern for him. He engaged well and completed his treatment.”
After leaving the Priory, he had further treatment at the private £7k-a-week Rainford Hall clinic in St Helen’s, Merseyside, where he was also diagnosed with an upper respiratory tract infection. He recovered and left the facility on October 14.
Verdict
A post-mortem found that the prince, who was descended from the great-great-grandfather of King Salman of Saudi Arabia, did not have any acute or chronic illnesses, but had suffered cardiac arrest as a result of the combination of drugs and alcohol. Assistant Coroner Jean Harkin said that she did not believe he had intended to take his life, noting that reports from both the Priory and Rainford Hall said there had been no concerns, that he had not told anyone that he wanted to kill himself, and there was no note in his room. There was also no evidence of third party involvement, with CCTV clearly showing him alone the night before his death.
Mrs Harkin recorded a verdict of death by misadventure with the cause of death as multi-drug ingestion. She added: “I would like to offer my sincere condolences to the family of Abdullah.”
