THE amount of alcohol in the system of a Nelson hotel guest who died of alcohol poisoning after downing a cocktail of spirits could have changed after death, a court heard.

Nenagh Circuit Court previously heard that 375mg of alcohol was found in Graham Parish’s body, above the average fatal dose taken from a study of 175 similar deaths.

Bar manager Gary Wright and barman Aidan Dalton have pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Parish, in Hayes Hotel, Thurles, Co Tipperary, on June 30, 2008.

The father-of-two, from Calder Terrace, Lomeshaye, Nelson, was celebrating his 26th birthday before he died.

Poisons expert Dr Joseph Tracey told a manslaughter trial that alcohol levels can rise as the body decomposes.

Dr Tracey, former clinical director of the National Poisons Information Centre, at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, was recalled to give evidence on the fourth day of the trial.

He told Judge Thomas Teehan that a person’s blood alcohol levels can both rise and fall after death because of putrefaction, the decomposition of the body.

“Blood alcohol level is not a definite diagnostic tool when it comes to post-mortem,” said Dr Tracey.

The medic also referred to a study of more than 100 patients who attended casualty departments with between 400mg and 600mg of alcohol in their system and lived.

Mr Parish had been drinking heavily with five British contractors in the hotel.

After slumping off his bar stool, he was carried to a conference room where a night porter found him dead shortly after 6am the following morning.

His parents, David and Julie, and sister Jess, have travelled to Ireland for the landmark case which is the first of its kind under liquor liability laws.

If convicted, Wright, 34 and Dalton, 28, who are both from Kilfithmone, Borrisoleigh, in Co Tipperary, can be imprisoned for life.

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