A HAMPSHIRE man died of an ecstasy overdose - three years after his girlfriend lost her life the same way.

Leon Lewis was was found unresponsive in his lounge following a drug-fuelled party.

Despite receiving CPR from ambulance crews, the 42-year-old was pronounced dead on his way to hospital.

Three years previously his partner Deborah Jeffery, 45, died after taking the illicit substance at Boomtown Fair music festival.

Now Winchester Coroner’s Court has heard how on October 31 last year, Mr Lewis went with friend Carl Scott to buy some MDMA – the powder or crystal-like form of ecstasy.

After taking the drug the pair went to the Railway Inn in Winchester with friend Geoff Merson and Ms Jeffery’s son Callum Joyce.

Mr Scott told the court that the group then headed back to Mr Lewis’ home in Fromond Road, Winchester, where they drank more alcohol and he and Mr Lewis took MDMA.

The next day the pair injected a combination of crack cocaine and heroin known as a 'snowball'.

However, the 42-year-old’s health then started to deteriorate.

Mr Scott said: “We went to the shop to get some beer.

“When we came back, Leon was on the sofa.

“I remember this because we shared a beer with him.

“I then went upstairs to do some heroin.

“Geoff then came upstairs and said ‘Leon does not look too good. He is a funny colour’.”

When the pair went to check on their friend, they found that he was cold but sweating and unresponsive.

Mr Lewis later died on his way to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital after suffering a heart attack.

Pathologist Dr Adnan Al-Badri said this was a result of taking both heroin and ecstasy.

“The two drugs are polar opposites,” explained the doctor.

“One stimulates the brain and the other relaxes it.

“This affects the temperature control part of the brain and it can cause hyperthermia.”

He added: “There is no safe drug level of ecstasy.

“Whatever you take you’re at risk.”

Coroner Grahame Short recorded a verdict of a drug-related death.

In 2012, Mr Lewis had attended the inquest of his girlfriend following her death at Boomtown Fair.