The uncle of a teenager who collapsed and died at an illegal rave after reportedly taking party drug ketamine has said his drink must have been spiked.
Sims Andrew, 46, paid tribute to ambitious 15-year-old athlete Rio Andrew, who was top of his maths class.
He said: “His mum and dad are devastated. He was very level headed and his drink must have been spiked.
"He wouldn’t have got involved in that. He would never touch anything like that, he had asthma and he didn’t smoke, didn’t do drugs. He was very sensible.
"He was in the Olympics, he walked out into the stadium with the flag from the Jamaican team as part of the school’s involvement.
"The whole family were very proud of him.”
Mr Andrew told how Rio had been training for the summer games season as a shot-putter while he spent winter months playing rugby at scrum-half.
He said: “He wanted to get into sports when he left school, although I always told him to study something educational as well, just in case.”
Metropolitan Police Commander Simon Letchford said it was likely that his death was drug-related. Police are awaiting the results of toxicology tests.
“We’ve got a number of lines of inquiry that we’re following but we believe he’s taken some sort of drug that’s had an adverse effect on him," said Commander Letchford.
"We want to identify who’s provided that to him.”
Rio was taken ill along with another teenager after they reportedly drank beer laced with horse tranquiliser ketamine.
Rio died on Monday around 36 hours after being taken to hospital from the disused sorting office in Croydon, South London, where the rave was held in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Holland Park School in Kensington, west London, where Rio was a Year 10 pupil, paid tribute to the “much respected student”.
In a statement posted on its website, the school said: “Rio was an able scholar, destined for academic success.
"He was also an exceptional sportsman and due to be awarded this Friday, a prestigious sports award.”
The 19-year-old man who became ill after reportedly drinking from the same bottle is still in hospital in a stable condition.
Scotland Yard said it was aware of six other people who were taken to hospital with injuries. All have been discharged.
Fourteen people were arrested in connection with the event for a range of offences including drugs offences, violent disorder and money laundering.
Two men have been charged with violent disorder and drugs offences, and a 47-year-old man and a 30-year-old man were given cautions for possession of class A drugs.
A 16-year-old partygoer from Hertfordshire, said there were a lot of 14- and 15-year-olds among the 1,500 ravers and many were on drugs including MDMA, ketamine and acid.
He said: “We had to leave because there was quite a lot of violence. It was a pretty bad experience.”
Ketamine is a powerful anaesthetic. It takes effect within approximately 10 minutes and the total experience lasts no more than a few hours.
In larger doses it can produce a sense of detachment from one’s own body and the external world – sometimes referred to by users as falling in the “K-hole”.
Drinking alcohol exacerbates the dangers of taking it, while it can cause very serious bladder problems, with pain and difficulty in passing urine.
Meanwhile police have launched an inquiry into why officers failed to shut down the event, which was put on by promoter Rum and Bass.
Scotland Yard began the internal review after it emerged they had been tipped off a fortnight ago.
A strong force of police in riot gear were on hand at the venue but – despite an explosion of violence – they waited outside and allowed the event to continue.
Commander Letchford said: “I would have expected a bit more to have been done.
“I’ll need to find out why that wasn’t done at the time.”
Mr Letchford said about 2,000 people had attended the illegal rave, which police allowed to continue to avoid trouble spilling out on to nearby streets.
