Deborah Robinson died in September last year

AN inquest into the death of a popular woman who became known as the “queen of Angel” has found she died of acute cocaine toxicity.

Deborah Robinson, known as Dee to locals, who would frequent the Sainsbury’s supermarket in Angel, where she would usually be found sitting outside, died within an hour of having a seizure last year, St Pancras Coroner’s Court heard.

At the time of her death, a mass outpouring of love for the friendly and smiling local figure resulted in a GoFundMe page that raised just under £3,000 to give her “the send-off she deserves”.

The court heard on Tuesday that Ms Robinson, 52, had taken crack cocaine on September 16 with her boyfriend when she began fitting at around 4.45pm.

He called a friend and then an ambulance, and although a paramedic arrived within five minutes, she was pronounced dead just before 6pm.

The youngest of four sisters and one brother, Ms Robinson had been indulged as a child and had a good childhood in Croydon, her sister Sharon Bailey said, with no apparent reason for her to go “off the rails”.

Ms Bailey told the court: “I always say we lost her when she was about 18 because Deb was the sort of person who did what she wanted, when she wanted, how she wanted.

“She went to Carnival and never came back. In my heart I knew she was alright, and we spent weeks looking for her, but eventually she popped up, and she was pregnant with her first child. Then she popped up again and it was just lucky she went into labour [then], so when she had her first child she was with us.”

Ms Robinson went on to have another two children. All three have been raised by Ms Robinson’s sisters as their own.

Ms Bailey said: “She would be very, very, very proud of her kids, they’re very intelligent kids. They’ve really not missed out on anything. We’ve made sure they haven’t missed out on anything. They’re lovely kids, but it’s just a pity because knowing how the community has known her, seeing if she wasn’t led by drugs what she would have been like.”

Coroner Sarah Vourke said: “What we know is Deborah had problems with drugs going back to being a teenager. Sadly these problems with addiction were very difficult. We know that her life was the result of her addictions. She had her children that she wasn’t in contact with but thankfully who her family raised.

“It’s incredibly sad that Deborah didn’t get to know the children and they didn’t get to know her.

“It’s clear although things were difficult, you still loved Deborah even though you didn’t get to spend much time together, and I hope in time you think about the better times. I think she would be incredibly proud of her children.”

In the days after her death, floral tributes and cards lined the steps outside the Sainsbury’s in Liverpool Road, while donors remembered how she would brighten their day with a smile and a kind word.