A heroin and drink cocktail ended in Christmas tragedy for family and friends of a North Yorkshire teenager, an inquest heard.

And police today disclosed that two men have been arrested in connection with the discovery of Mark Wallace's body in the bathroom of the family home in Oxcroft, Kirbymoorside, on Boxing Day last year.

Det Con Garry Ridler, of Malton CID, told the Evening Press: "What the death does highlight is that class A drugs like heroin are in these rural towns. Without the help of people coming forward, we can't tackle it on our own."

Det Con Ridler spoke out after the Pickering inquest heard Mark, 17, may have been using drugs while serving a 12-month sentence of detention. But he had told his sister Louise he had "put all that behind him".

The inquest also heard that a known heroin addict may have been trying to get Mark to try the drug against his wishes.

Mark died nine days after his release from Wetherby Young Offenders Institution.

The inquest heard he drank about nine pints of lager in two drinking sessions on Christmas Day, plus alcohol with his Christmas lunch. A hypodermic syringe and other drug-related items were later found in the house.

A post-mortem examination showed Mark's death was caused by "fatal misuse of heroin/morphine together with alcohol".

Prompted by North Yorkshire East coroner Michael Oakley, Mark's best friend Gareth Edwards, of Sycamore Terrace, Harome, near Helmsley, said a man called Kingsley Wilsher had told him Ian Metcalf, with whom Mark had been working in the week before his death, had supplied the heroin.

"Ian Metcalf is a known drug addict, a registered drug addict," said Gareth.

Referring to Mark, he said: "None of us liked him working with Ian - we knew what he was like. Mark had been saying Ian had been trying to get him to try it, and he said he didn't want anything to do with it."

Mark's sister Louise said in a statement: "He said he had been on drugs at Wetherby, but had put all that behind him."

Mark's mother, Elizabeth, heard him go to the bathroom on the night of his death. "I just thought he had gone to sleep, so I left him until we needed to get into the bathroom."

The locked door was forced open in the morning. "He was just knelt down by the side of the toilet. He was cold," Mrs Wallace said.

She was unaware of him using any drugs except cannabis.

The two arrested men are expected to answer police bail on April 18.

Last June at York Crown Court, Mark, Gareth, then 19, and Ian Metcalf, then 24, together with a fourth man, were sentenced to a year in custody after admitting causing grievous bodily harm to a man who was beaten so badly that one eye was dislodged.

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