Heartbroken family believe man with cerebral palsy was 'groomed' after drug death

A heartbroken family of a man with cerebral palsy believe he was taken advantage of by 'undesirables' that got him into drugs. Michael Greenheld, 49, 'still believed in Father Christmas', his family says, arguing he could not have understood what was happening to him.

Michael, from Hull, was found dead at a friend’s home after he had taken an overdose of heroin. But his family say Michael was “groomed” and was ripped away from living a full life and having a strong network of support.

Michael was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child and suffered learning disabilities all his life. Despite that, he embraced life and threw himself into a number of sports, winning many medals, HullLive reports.

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He was also close to his family and had help from a learning disability support team, but they could not prevent him getting involved with the wrong people. After an inquest into his death, his family spoke about their loss and the tragic way Michael died.

They said: “Michael was such a wonderful person and loved by all his family. But he had learning difficulties and people took advantage of that.

“He was vulnerable and some unscrupulous people could see that. We tried to move him away from these people. He trusted people and showed them how kind he was. But that seemed to be his downfall. We feel he was groomed.

“We don’t even think he understood what drugs he was taking but he did know drugs were bad. He still believed in Father Christmas so how was he to understand what was going on?

“We wanted him to live his life as normal as possible and give him some independence but it was difficult for him. There were a lot of