Inquest into Peaches Geldof death to take place today

At the opening in May, the inquest heard that the 25-year-old’s husband had found her in a spare room at the home they shared in Wrotham, Kent, on April 7, with one leg hanging down to the floor and the other tucked underneath her after she failed to answer the phone.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Fotheringham told the hearing in Gravesend that recent heroin use “was likely to have played a role” in her death.

He also described the unsuccessful efforts her husband, musician Tom Cohen, made to contact his wife before he found her body.

Mr Cohen had gone to his parents’ home in south-east London with the couple’s two sons, Astala, two, and Phaedra, one, a normal arrangement so that he and TV presenter and columnist Ms Geldof could concentrate on their work, Mr Fotheringham said.

Ms Geldof remained at home in Wrotham and in contact with friends and family, appearing to be her normal self, the inquest heard.

Mr Fotheringham said: “It is believed that Peaches spent Saturday afternoon (April 5), into the evening, and Sunday morning at her home address alone.

“Throughout this period she maintained telephone contact with family and friends, including contact with Thomas’s mother to arrange a family activity, but this was cancelled.

“Peaches maintained contact with family and friends throughout Sunday and at 5pm Thomas’s father Keith Cohen took the youngest child, Phaedra, back to Wrotham and spent half an hour with Peaches before leaving the child with her.”

Mr Fotheringham said the last contact with Ms Geldof is believed to have been at 7.45pm on the Sunday when she had a telephone conversation with a friend and that no one who had spoken to her over the weekend had believed there was any cause for concern.

Mr Cohen travelled to the family home in Kent with his mother, Sue, and Astala the following day, arriving at around 1.30pm, after failing to get hold of his wife.

“Thomas entered the property and located Peaches in the spare bedroom,” Mr Fotheringham said. It was apparent that she was dead.

Mr Cohen called out to his mother, Phaedra was found in the property, and the emergency services were called.

A post-mortem examination carried out by Dr Peter Jerreat at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford was inconclusive but further tests confirmed the recent taking of heroin, Mr Fotheringham said.

Her death marks a parallel to the death of her mother, TV presenter and writer Paula Yates, who died from an accidental heroin overdose, aged 41, at her London home in 2000.

Ms Geldof’s funeral took place took place at St Mary Magdalene and St Lawrence Church in Davington, near Faversham, where she had married Mr Cohen in 2012.

It was also where her mother married Mr Geldof in 1986 and where Ms Yates’ funeral service was held.

Mr Geldof is thought to have led tributes to his daughter in front of a host of well-known personalities, including the Duchess of York, supermodel Kate Moss and former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman.

The former Boomtown Rats singer has since spoken of the “intolerable” pain he feels following his daughter’s death.

In an interview with ITV’s Lorraine Kelly, he said he would sometimes “buckle” when he thought of his loss out of the blue and that it was “still very raw”.