A father-of-two who had started taking spice a week before his death was found dead in his bedsit by his young son.

On August 29, Steven Dunn, who had a 15-year history of drug dependency, which included amphetamines and cannabis, had failed to respond to text messages sent to him by his son, an inquest in Preston heard.

Deciding to head over to his father’s house on Blackburn Road in Great Harwood, Mr Dunn’s son, who got no response when knocking, peered through the window and saw his dad slumped on the sofa.

Coroner James Newman told the inquest: “His son climbed through an open window and found his dad on the sofa.

“He phoned his sister and mother, who arrived and began performing CPR on Mr Dunn but it was clear he had been dead for some time and this was confirmed by paramedics once they arrived.”

Tests found a high level of amphetamine in his blood, as well as evidence of the synthetic cannabis-like drug, spice.

In a statement from Mr Dunn’s ex-wife, Shirley Dunn, she said they had separated eight years earlier after Mr Dunn ‘went down the wrong road with drugs and alcohol and their relationship deteriorated’.

The statement read: “After we separated, his substance misuse worsened and he started smoking cannabis, and I was made aware by my son that he started doing spice about a week before he died.”

A GP report from Rishton and Great Harwood Surgery where Mr Dunn had been a patient, noted that he hadn’t been seen at the practice since 2015, and there was no history of any drug or alcohol misuse on any of his records.

Finding the death to be drug-related, Mr Newman said: “Steven was a 56-year-old with a long history of substance dependency and a long-known history of amphetamine use within the family."