A WOMAN died as a result of an overdose – but her partner says he has no idea where she got the heroin that killed her.

Sarah Hobby, 43, was found dead at her home in Woodvale Gardens, New Milton, on March 11, by her boyfriend.

Nigel Legge, himself a drug addict, couldn’t wake her and told a hearing into her death that he didn't know where the drugs came from. that ended her life. The hearing was told people would “come and go” at the house where locally-known drug dealer Nathan Hilliard – the father of Ms Hobby's daughter Sophie – stayed as well.

His comments came under fire from Sophie, when she told the hearing there were needles in every drawer of the house when she was growing up and that her mother never injected herself, but would plead for others to do it for her.

Sophie said: “That’s what I remember from my childhood. If you’re telling me they didn’t bring drugs into the house then that’s rubbish.

"When I was living at that house I never remember her doing it herself.”

Assistant coroner for south Hampshire, Simon Burge, asked Mr Legge: “It’s possible that one of them brought heroin in.

"If not them, how else would she have got it?”

Mr Legge responded: “I don’t know. She knew a lot of people with drugs. I go into both my hands, my feet.

"If you can find a vein you do it.”

Mr Burge asked the other witnesses to stop asking questions of Mr Legge.

“We’re not allowed to put questions towards Mr Legg which would potentially incriminate him,” he said.

Acting detective sergeant Dan Toman, of Southampton CID, told the hearing while it was possible Ms Hobby had been injected they could find no evidence to sustain the theory.

“We have been unable to prove that’s the case,” he said. “We identified no means or motive to do Sarah wrong.”

Joyce Gaines, Sarah’s mother, said her daughter had recently completed a detox while staying with her and had been looking forward to a holiday she had booked for the two of them – a reward for Sarah having completed a stint of rehab.

Mr Burge recorded a verdict of accidental death and told the hearing her death should be considered a stark warning to drug users.

“Drugs are not glamorous, they are not sexy, they are not fun: they lead to relationship disasters,” he said. “They lead to financial haemorrhage and they lead to health deterioration which all too often can blight and destroy a life.”

He added: “She always got what she wanted when it came do drugs and she could be quite vocal and forceful when it came to drugs. It’s impossible to say today, or any day, where the drugs came from.”