A grieving mother said today she never wanted to see Selby again after hearing how her son had become another victim of the town's escalating heroin problem.

Susan Whitehead believed her son, Andrew, whose body was found in a flat in Abbots Road in February, had died of a heart attack.

But when she attended his inquest in Selby on Friday she was told he had died from a cocktail of drugs and drink.

Mrs Whitehead, 47, of Leeds, said today: "It came as a tremendous shock. It made me feel sick inside.

"I knew he had taken drugs in the past, mainly to keep him awake at nightclubs, but he had promised me he would never touch them again.

"He had kept off drugs for three years. It's only now we've realised that Selby was one of the worst places he could have gone to as far as heroin is concerned.

"I never want to see the place again."

Andrew had travelled to Selby from Leeds to see his fiancee, Amanda Cunningham, who was expecting their baby, on the weekend he died.

Coroner Jeremy Cave, who recorded a misadventure verdict, told the inquest that Selby detectives had been unable to discover whether Andrew had taken the illegal "street" heroin himself or if someone else had injected it into him.

Mrs Whitehead added: "Andrew was terrified of needles. I just wish someone would tell me exactly how he died."

She also appealed through the Evening Press for help in contacting Amanda, who had given birth to a baby girl just a fortnight after Andrew died.

She said: "I'm desperate to trace Amanda and find out more about my new granddaughter."

Speaking from an unidentified Selby address in March, Amanda told the Evening Press: "Andrew felt the only way to stay off drugs was to move out of Selby. Tragically, he didn't get the chance."

* Two years ago, James McLintock, 31, of Thorpe Willoughby, was also found dead at a house in Abbots Road.

James had moved to Suffolk in a desperate bid to get away from Selby's drug problems - but fell prey to a "bad cut" of heroin while on a weekend break back in his home town.

Updated: 12:02 Monday, June 25, 2001