A MAN from Millom sadly died after taking a lethal amount of drugs, an inquest heard.

Cockermouth Coroners’ Court heard how Gavin Walton, 30, died on September 24, 2019 at Holborn Hill.

Monica Wilson, who is married to Gavin’s father Philip, issued a statement which was read to the court.

She said: “After not hearing from him I asked Steven to check on him, who said that he was asleep on his bed.

“The next day Bryonie rang me to say it had been a long time since he has contacted her.

“When Steven went to check on him again he told me that ‘he was gone’.”

Steven Ellison, Gavin’s cousin who had been to check on him, said that on September 23, 2019, Mr Walton had barricaded himself in his room and had nailed the door shut. He said that he needed to use force to get in.

When Mr Ellison found him the next day he said he had never seen anything like it, and when he touched him he was clearly dead.

In a statement from the police they said that Mr Walton’s girlfriend Bryonie was on the scene and she had thought that he was sleeping off the drink or drugs.

They said: “He was found on a beanbag with his head between his legs and blood coming from his nose.”

Mr Walton’s doctor had given a statement that told the court that he was a long-term drug user with paranoia and psychosis.

The toxicology report found multiple drugs in his system, with amphetamine three and a half times the lethal range.

Mr Simon Ward, assistant coroner, ruled this was a drug related death.

He said: “Drugs had proven to be a problem and other health problems. He had taken a cocktail of drugs at lethal levels. There is insufficient evidence to suggest it was a suicide, so I would conclude on the balance of probability that this was a drug related death.

“I will take the post mortem cause of death of a mixed drug overdose.”