his late wife yesterday.

And Coroner Edward King will give an official verdict next week on how Fatima Ruqayyah Al-Khattab met her death last March.

In the continuation of the inquest yesterday, Mrs. Al Khattab's husband Umar Ibin said his wife had a long history of drug abuse and convictions relating to it.

But in an emotional message sent to the court via Police Coroner's Officer Phil Taylor, he said of his late wife: "She wasn't a junkie. She had a lot of love and she was a beautiful person.'' The inquest was adjourned last month to allow time for Mr. Al-Khattab -- also known as Robert "Daffy'' Bernard -- to travel to the Island and testify.

But it was revealed that he was unable to make it to yesterday's proceedings because he was receiving treatment for illness in a hospital in Maryland.

In his statement, which was read into the record by a Police officer, he said he had known Mrs. Al-Khattab, who was previously known as Carla Joyce Johnson, since she was a teenager.

He said she had started smoking marijuana when she was 19 and moved on to harder drugs soon after that.

He added that, while much of her time was spent between Bermuda and the United States, his late wife had been convicted of offences several times, including one occasion when she went on a "crime spree''.

And Mr. Al-Khattab said, although he had managed to help her to give up drugs for a period after they married and she converted to Islam, she had started again in the mid-1990s after being rejected from her estranged mother's bedside, who had had a stroke.

He described how the last time he saw Mrs. Al-Khattab was when she caught the bus into Hamilton on the morning of March 5.

Also testifying yesterday was the officer in charge of investigating the death, P.c. Terry Trott.

Asked by Sgt. Taylor to read out a report of the conclusions he came to, he said an autopsy revealed she died of an overdose of diamorphine, traces of which were found to be present throughout her body.

P.c. Trott also explained the autopsy revealed her to be HIV positive, adding that she had been known to complain about bad chest pains while she was in prison.

He said there were "no indications of foul play'' suggesting that anyone else had been responsible for introducing the heroin to Mrs. Al-Khattab's body.

And he added: "Fatima was a known abuser of drugs with a long record of convictions for dishonesty offences.

"My finding is that her use of narcotics directly resulted in her death.'' During earlier proceedings last month, Mr. King heard that Mrs. Al-Khattab had been told on the week of her death that she would lose her job as a gardener with the Corporation of St. George's.

She had joined the town's work crews after leaving prison in January 1999.

Corporation supervisor Alan Douglas said he saw Mrs. Al-Khattab on the day before her death and noted she was "not her normal self'' and that she was "shrugging and fidgety''.

Her foreman drove her home on March 5 and rather than leave her at Till's Hill where he usually left her, she asked to be dropped off at St. Augustine's Hill.

But Marylyn Steede, who found Mrs. Al-Khattab's body in the pump-room of her house on St. Augustine's Hill, said her friend "CJ'' had seemed to be in a good mood just two days before.

Mrs. Al-Khattab was found the following morning in the pump room still wearing her Corporation of St. George's hat and uniform.

Mr. Francis will deliver his findings next Monday.