30-year-old man from Stone Allerton died after taking toxic combination of drugs

A 30-year-old man died in Stone Allerton after taking a toxic mixture of morphine, diazepam and cocaine, an inquest has heard.

The inquest into the death of the man (whose anonymity Nub News has recognised due to the passage of time) was concluded on August 12 by the senior Somerset coroner Tony Williams.

The inquest heard that the man had been found dead in his home on April 21, but had a history of drug use.

Earlier in the year, he spent two months in Portugal, working in a hostel in Lisbon, and he had been in regular contact with his family.

During his time there he realised that the people he was working with at the hostel were Jehovah's Witnesses and his family told the inquest he had decided to go along with their beliefs to make his life easier there.

Notes were found in his room at the time of his death that, the inquest was told, were written at this time, confessing sins to God, but they were not suicide notes.

When the coronavirus crisis struck, the man returned home to live in Stone Allerton during lockdown, and was said to be very happy, enjoying spending time with his family.

He applied for Universal Credit and received an advance payment but, due to his history with drugs, he used some of this money to buy the drugs he took on the night that he died.

On the night in question, he was last seen by his sister at 9pm on April 20, but exchanged WhatsApp messages with his mother until around 5am on April 21.

At around 1pm on April 21, his sister went into his room to see if he was awake, where she found his body, with drug paraphernalia around him.

A post mortem was carried out by Dr Holwill, who is a pathologist at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, which found that the dead man had morphine, diazepam and cocaine in his blood.

The morphine level was consistent with recent heroin use, and the diazepam level was within the range used for therapy, however the combination of the two at the levels they were at, can prove toxic.

Mr Williams concluded the inquest by registering the death as drugs-related, though there was no evidence to suggest that he was planning to take his own life, with the cause of death being combined acute toxicity of morphine, diazepam and cocaine.