A HOOK man died following a heroin overdose, an inquest heard.

Stephen Edmonds, 45, died on March 7, following an overdose of mephedrone, commonly known as M-CAT, and heroin.

The inquest held at Basingstoke Magistrates Court last Wednesday heard that Mr Edmonds was staying at a cottage in Andwell Lane, Hook with Ruddy Coco, who he was carrying out groundswork with.

Mr Coco had gone into the cottage on the night of March 7 to speak to Stephen after noticing that an electric light was flickering and then found Stephen in a “state of collapse” with a syringe.

PC Andrew Greaves, from Hampshire Constabulary, told the inquest: “He panicked, tried to revive Stephen for some time before calling the ambulance service.”

Mr Edmond’s car, which was not at the address in Andwell Lane when police arrived, was seen in the Sarum Hill area of Basingstoke at 11.58pm and was then found in Brookvale the following day.

Forensic testing of the car found that two people other than Mr Edmonds had been in the car, although police have not been able to positively identify the people.

When police arrived at the property, Mr Coco was found to have heroin and was arrested but during police questioning, he said he only had drugs on him as he collected them from the property and was going to give them to the police.

Recording a verdict of misadventure, North East Hampshire coroner Andrew Bradley said: “Let me say there are lots of questions about Stephen’s death but the significant point for me is that he is at home, he is in a situation where there is drug paraphernalia around and he was found with inappropriate puncture marks which indicated he would have injected himself with heroin. There isn’t any evidence that anyone else injected him. I can’t give you anything that is going to comfort you other than the fact he didn’t suffer in the execution of the deed as it were and would have known nothing about it.”