Shaun Wells.

A COCKTAIL of alcohol and drugs killed a man just hours after his electronic police tag had been removed.

An inquest into the death of Shaun Wells, 24, of Whitsbury Road, Fordingbridge, heard that he was found collapsed in a club toilet having drunk heavily and taken methadone and diazepam.

Deputy coroner Gordon Denson recorded a verdict of accidental death due to non-dependent drug abuse at Southampton Coroner's Court.

He said: "The culmination and the levels of all the drugs may have contributed to his death. I don't accept for one moment that he intended to take his own life."

Det Sgt Andy Lupton told the inquest that the tag was removed 12 hours early by a private company for unknown reasons. He added Mr Wells, a drainage worker, had never breached his curfew before so it is unlikely that the incident would have happened if his tag had been left on. He had been wearing the tag for four months after admitting affray.

On the night that the tag was removed Mr Wells had gone to a social club and later moved on to the Fordingbridge Club when his mother got a call from the club asking her to pick him up. When she arrived he insisted he wanted to stay and she went home.

When he was found collapsed in the toilet the club called her again and she picked him up and with the help of friends took him home and put him to bed. She checked on him regularly and heard him snoring before she went to bed after midnight. Later she said she thought he was making a funny noise.

The following morning, January 20, his mother found him dead.

Pathologist Adrian Bateman said his death was probably due to the methadone but its effect could have been exacerbated by the other drugs.

The methadone was not prescribed to Mr Wells.

Meanwhile two men have appeared in court charged with supplying drugs following his death.

Charles Lee, 28, of Rockbourne, Fordingbridge, has been charged with supplying a class A substance while Sebastian Coughlan, 26, of Castle Meadows, Salisbury, has been charged with supplying a class C substance.

6:48am Tuesday 13th May 2008

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