A MAN with chronic drug problems died of an overdose in his father's Southampton home after often telling people he was going to kill himself.

Wayne Leigh Eastman, 33, unemployed, had a 15-year history of abusing illicit drugs including heroin and crack cocaine, an inquest heard in Winchester.

On the day of his death, May 20, he was staying at his father's house in Colne Avenue, Millbrook.

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At one point he left the house saying he was going to jump off the Redbridge flyover but returned and went to bed. However, that night his girlfriend Hayley Dunne noticed he was not breathing. His step mum Julie Eastman and Ms Dunne attempted CPR, as did paramedics, but he was declared dead at the scene.

Consultant pathologist Dr Adrian Bateman said Mr Eastman had taken several illicit and prescription drugs and said cause of death was a mixed drugs overdose.

The hearing was told his girlfriend Ms Dunne, 29, was expecting their child. In a statement Ms Dunne said: "Our relationship was always up and down the whole time. If he did not get his way he would threaten to kill himself."

She said in the months before his death they had both lost friends through drugs overdoses.

His mother Carole Collins, 57, of Brownhill Road, North Baddesley, where her unemployed son lived, said in a statement that he had been pleased Ms Dunne was pregnant but had later had a call from a man claiming he was the unborn baby's father. That had escalated her son's drug use.

Mrs Collins added: "He used to threaten to attempt suicide about twice a month, for attention and to score drugs. I fell for it and used to give him money."

She said that Ms Dunne had since lost the baby.

Mr Eastman's father Leigh Eastman, in a statement, said his son on the evening of his death claimed to have taken a fatal dose of tablets. "I said 'you are always doing this.'

"When Wayne said he had taken tablets I didn't think he actually had. I felt it was for attention. I'm still coming to terms with what has happened. It does not seem real as I'm in shock."

PC Olly Maidment, based at Portswood, said there were no signs of injuries or Mr Eastman having been assaulted.

Senior Coroner Grahame Short said there was no clear evidence of suicide and concluded it was a drug-related death.

He said to Mrs Collins. "You have suffered a number of losses as a result of drugs affecting other members of our family. This must really have hit you very hard. Please accept my sympathy."

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