Ooops!

Arriving home from work yesterday find one of our regular punters sitting at the bar in a collar and tie. "All dressed up and nowhere to go?" I quipped.

"Sort of" replied Paul aka "the Black Widow".

"What's with the tie, you look as though you've been in court".

"I have".

Reading the Camden New Journal today [our weekly local rag] explained all.

Linda Jolly and Marion Lyon at St Pancras Coroner’s courtMothers’ anguish over double death mysteryInquest hears how two men die in the same Hampstead flatTWO grieving mothers discovered on Tuesday that their young sons died in the same Hampstead flat in mysteriously similar circumstances within six months.St Pancras Coroners heard how Terence Jolly, 18, died of a massive morphine and sleeping pill overdose at a flat in the sheltered Monro House block in Fitzjohn’s Avenue last January.Just six months later, aspiring racing driver Lawrence Lyon, 23, died in the same bunk bed in July.Both men had been befriended by Paul Mingo, a live-in carer at Monro House, shortly before their deaths.Mr Mingo claimed that both Mr Jolly and Mr Lyon had been his lovers and had brought them to the flat to help them deal with drug problems. But their families say neither man was gay and are calling for police to expand an investigation which has so far failed to answer all of their questions.Mr Jolly’s adoptive mother, Linda, said she was thrown by the similarity of the deaths: “We were almost coming to terms with it and the (coroner’s inquest) threw it all up in the air again. It’s left us with unanswered questions.”Mr Lyon’s mother Marion said: “It’s going to take a long time to get over this. We’ve both lost sons. We’ve a very strong family, he knew he had a problem, we were in the process of sorting it. It’s destroyed the whole family.” Mr Mingo has received a police caution for giving Mr Lyon three sleeping tablets, which formed part of the lethal drugs cocktail that led to his death.He told the inquest: “Foolishly I gave him some sleeping pills and I should have known better and I’m deeply sorry for what happened. Unfortunately my past has not been good. Most of my lovers have been drug addicts and have been young. That’s my mistake. I’ve been this way all my life. I didn’t do anything intentionally. I’m just sorry for what’s happened. I’m living with it in my own way and it’s not easy to deal with.”Mr Mingo said he met Mr Jolly, from Kent, when out clubbing, adding: “The time coming up to his death we got to arguing about the drugs. I had a previous partner and it didn’t go too well. I’d been beaten, stabbed a few times and held hostage in my own home.”Mr Lyon’s family, including sisters Jane and Dawn and father Michael, who all live in Somers Town, said they had devoted their lives to his ambition to become a Formula 1 racer. Through competitive kart racing he had got to know Jensen Button, raced against British champ Lewis Hamilton and was ultimately buried with his crash helmet.He temporarily gave up racing to work as a scaffolder to support his new son, but had to give up work to look after his mother after she was diagnosed with throat cancer.Mr Lyon’s sister Jane said after the inquest: “His four-year-old son Blaine has got to grow up not knowing what he was like. There’s no end to the grief.”Detective Inspector Carol Andrews told the coroner that Mr Mingo was questioned after both deaths but said that no charges had been brought. She added: “If information leads us to reopen the investigation to an allegation of manslaughter or homicide it will be reopened.”Verdict in both cases: Open.

Not for nothing is he called the Black Widow!