Paul Dawson’s death after ‘extreme sexual behaviour’ is ruled homicide

A MAN’S death was blamed on drug-fuelled sadomasochism gone wrong, but in fact it was foul play, not sex play, that killed him.

Death due to S&M session was murder

A 41-YEAR-OLD New Jersey man’s death in a hotel back in June was originally blamed on drug-fuelled sadomasochism gone wrong — but now it has been reclassified as a homicide, police sources tell The Post.

It was foul play, not sex play, with a pair of lovers who wrapped his head in plastic wrap that led to the death of Paul Dawson, of Asbury Park.

“Two males who were with him wrapped him in plastic wrap during an S&M session,” one law enforcement source said of Dawson, who died at 9am on June 9 in a room at the Comfort Inn near Central Park, the sources said.

The death had originally been classified as resulting from what police called “extreme sexual behaviour,” including the taking of methamphetamines and GHB — the so-called “date rape” drug.

The duo, whose identities have not been released, told investigators that they and Dawson all ingested the drugs, and that Dawson had taken them on his own.

But this was no blameless S&M party gone bad, sources revealed. One or both of Dawson’s two lovers — both of whom were known to him — may have given him the drugs in addition to recklessly, or intentionally, suffocating him.

“That’s great — I’m glad to hear that,” sister-in-law Ruth Carpenter of Elmira, NY, said when told that police have reclassified Dawson’s death as a homicide.

“We knew from the beginning” that foul play was involved, Carpenter told The Post. “But the police all kept telling us, ‘No, no, no, it was because of his lifestyle.’ They kind of swept it under the rug.”

A general view of the Comfort Inn Hotel in New York City. Picture: Christopher Sadowski

Dawson was staunchly against drugs, Carpenter said. “He didn’t do drugs. He was gay, and he was openly gay. He liked his alcohol and his cigars. But he was 100 per cent against drugs. And that’s what we told police.”

Police are continuing to investigate.

“He was cheerful; he liked musicals,” Carpenter said of Dawson. “He would always be singing. He collected Star Wars stuff, and figurines, like Godzilla. He was a big kid at heart.”

Dawson managed the building where he lived on 7th Avenue just off Deal Lake, and was described by neighbours as generous and intelligent.

“He might have smoked a cigarette, but in the 11 years I knew him, I never saw him high,” neighbour and friend Craig Curry, 71, said when told of the new homicide investigation.

“I think they gave the drugs to him. Maybe they put it in his drink,” Curry said.

The neighbour said he was very upset when Dawson died. “It took me a while to get over it. He took care of me like a son would.”

Dawson helped Curry after a stint in the hospital. “When I came home, I was bedridden. He shopped for me and helped me make my bed and took care of me.”

The NYPD never went to the apartment, or talked to the landlord, or spoke to friends in the months since his death. “I wish they had looked into it more.”

He last saw Dawson days before the death. Dawson was making what would be his last drive to New York. With him in the car were two male friends whom Curry didn’t know.

“It’s so mind-baffling, the fact it happened just like that,” Curry said.” It wasn’t the first time he went to NY. He would go every once in a while.”

Dawson described himself in his Twitter account as “irish/italian from Long Island now living in Jersey (slight yuck) lol.” He joined Twitter in 2009, and his only-ever tweet, from April of that year, was the word, “hanging.”

The Comfort Inn was most recently in the news earlier this month, when an ex-con allegedly raped and sodomised a stranger there, threatening her, “Today is the day you’re going to die.”

It has since changed names — to the Rodeway Inn — and has been purchased by La Quinta.