THE teenage son of former footballer Lou Macari used drugs and was in fear of a dealer he owed money to, an inquest heard yesterday.
Jonathan Macari, 19, who hanged himself from a tree near his home, turned to cocaine, amphetamines, and ecstasy after he failed in a bid to follow his famous father into a career in top football.
He soon spent a pay-off from Nottingham Forest, who released him before his contract expired, and confided in his girlfriend that he owed money for drugs.
Mr Macari and his wife Dale attended the coroners court at Stoke-on-Trent with their other sons Mike and Paul.
The former Manchester United and Scotland striker and his wife were distressed while hearing evidence of how their son's body was discovered.
The hearing was told that Jonathan was last seen alive after a night out with his childhood sweetheart, 18-year-old student Julia Rigby, ended in a row.
He was found the following day hanging by his belt from a tree only 100 yards from his girlfriend's home. The teenager had confided in her that he owed money for drugs and told her if a man came looking for him she was to say she did not know where he was.
Mr Macari told the hearing his son was an apprentice at Nottingham Forest, but last year the club offered to pay him off. He said: ''My view was that he should have stayed at Forest picking up his weekly wage and not be given a huge lump of money. He was only 18 then.
''He had a problem because he had no football and plenty of spare time on his hands. The money was burning a hole in his pocket. It was my fear he was frittering it away.''
Mr Macari said he did not like the fact that his youngest son went to The Void nightclub in Hanley.''
He said he and Jonathan sometimes argued and his son was evasive about where he had been. The last time he saw his son, at 5pm on Tuesday April 27, he knew Jonathan was going to a party at The Void club, and he was not happy about some of the people who were going there.
Mr Macari went to watch a Crewe Alexandra match that evening. The next day he was carrying out a radio commitment in Manchester when he was told by police about the tragedy.
North Staffs Coroner, John Wain, recorded an open verdict
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