A children’s television presenter died in a scalding hot bath after taking a mixture of cocaine, sleeping pills and vodka in what a coroner described as an evening of adventurous behaviour.

Natasha Collins, 31, had burns covering 60 per cent of her body when her partner, Mark Speight, a fellow presenter, discovered her lying in the water with the hot tap running. The couple had spent the night at home drinking and taking drugs.

Paul Knapman, the Westminster Coroner, recorded a verdict of death by misadventure and said that although Ms Collins had taken enough cocaine to kill her it was likely that a heart problem had caused her to lose consciousness in the bath.

A postmortem examination found a 1cm hole in her nasal septum, consistent with prolonged cocaine use.

Mr Speight, 42, was arrested initially on suspicion of murder and supplying Class A drugs. Last month Scotland Yard said that he would not face any charges over Ms Collins’s death at the couple’s flat in northwest London on January 3.

Mr Speight rose to fame on the ITV Saturday morning children’s show Scratchy & Co and is best known for the BBC children’s art show SMart. He and Ms Collins appeared together on the 1999 CBBC show, See It Saw It, for which she played the jovial court jester to his king.

Ms Collins’s acting career had become restricted after she was knocked down by a car and seriously injured seven years ago, and she had been working as a model and presenting corporate videos.

After her death, colleagues praised her “professionalism, bubbly personality and beautiful looks”. Some noted, however, that in recent months she had looked “painfully thin”.

In February Mr Speight announced that he was quitting SMart, saying that the loss of Ms Collins, to whom he had been engaged for three years, had left him unable to continue.

After the inquest verdict at Westminster Coroner’s Court he issued a joint statement with Ms Collins’s mother, Carmen. It read: “Natasha was a loving daughter, fiancée, sister and friend, with a very positive attitude towards life. She was always thinking of others. We are devastated that her life was cut short and we miss her deeply. She will always remain in our hearts.”

Professor Sebastian Lucas, a consultant pathologist, told the inquest that high levels of cocaine, well within the range at which the drug could be fatal, were found in Ms Collins’s blood-stream. Alcohol was also found at less than the drink-drive limit, as were sleeping tablets at a “significantly high” level and small amounts of para-cetamol.

There were scalds over an estimated 60 per cent of her body and face, including her tongue, consistent with being immersed in very hot water, he said. The pathologist gave the cause of death as cocaine toxicity and immersion in hot water.

Police had the flat’s boiler tested, but no defects were found.

Dr Knapman concluded: “We have heard that, within the privacy of their flat, they had embarked on adventurous behaviour, ignoring the risks. She has suffered the consequences by the ending of her life. It is a tragedy, of course, for all concerned.”

Blotted copy books

— Richard Bacon, a Blue Peter presenter, was dismissed in 1998 after admitting that he had taken cocaine. He resurfaced on The Big Breakfast and now hosts television and radio shows

— Peter Duncan, also a Blue Peter presenter, was embarrassed by the disclosure that he had starred in a pornographic film. He later had a career in musicals

— John Leslie left Blue Peter to present This Morning in 2001. Drug allegations and sex scandals put paid to his ambitions

— It was revealed in 1968 that one of the first Blue Peter presenters, Christopher Trace, had cheated on his wife on a BBC trip. He quit the show and became a cab driver

— Gail Porter admitted being “out of her head” while fronting BBC Two’s Fully Booked. She later allowed her naked image to be projected on to the Palace of Westminster

— Jamie Theakston, the co-presenter of Live and Kicking, was left red-faced by details of his bondage encounter with three prostitutes

Source: Times Kids TV database

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