A Wraxall man went to sleep at a friend’s house and never woke up after taking cocaine and heroin, a coroner has concluded.

Daniel Cronin, of The Grove, was found dead on August 26 after spending the night in Weston, following a row with his girlfriend Sharon Ashe.

An inquest into Mr Cronin’s death, held at Flax Bourton Coroner’s Court on November 2, was told he had a history of taking drugs.

Miss Ashe, through a statement read out in court, said Mr Cronin had been injured the day before his death during a scuffle with someone in her block of flats.

She had taken him to hospital, but he left before having an X-ray because medics at Weston General Hospital would not give him any pain relief.

They drank four litres of Strongbow cider between them but tensions flared when he refused to go back for treatment, despite still being in pain, prompting them to row outside.

Paul Hirst was driving past Miss Ashe’s house at the time and saw her arguing with his friend, Mr Cronin.

He therefore offered the 44-year-old the chance to come back to his home in Coleridge Road and to sleep on his sofa.

Mr Hirst, in his statement read at the inquest, said: “Daniel didn’t have any drugs or alcohol in my presence

“(But) I could smell alcohol on him and he was kind of slurring.”

Mr Hirst left the house and returned the following morning.

He said: “I came home at about 9.30am and I could see instantly he was dead.

“He was cold and stiff.”

Miss Ashe said Mr Cronin ‘occasionally took crack cocaine and drank most days’. She also said he took heroin ‘rarely’.

A post-mortem report revealed cocaine and diamorphine – which is a form of medical heroin – was in Mr Cronin’s system when he died. Experts said his death was in keeping with someone who might have ‘binged’ on drugs from time to time.

The injuries he sustained the previous day did not contribute to his death, the inquest was told.

Coroner Maria Voisin concluded Mr Cronin died as a result of taking drugs.

She said: “His death was due to mixed drug intoxication. His death will be recorded as accidental.”