A father who was known as a promising tradesman in his youth died after taking a fatal combination of prescribed and non-prescribed medication an inquest heard on Thursday November 24.

Coroners officer Jamie Lang told the hearing that Robert Jamie Day, 42, moved from Swansea to Pembrokeshire in 2007.

He had worked as a roofer and was a considered to be one of the best young tradespeople in the Swansea area.

As he got older, he suffered from chronic back pain and was prescribed pain relief medication including morphine. He was also prescribed medication for anxiety and depression.

The inquest heard that Mr Day's condition had declined since November last year. He was short tempered, not taking care of himself and seemed depressed. He told a friend that he was taking too many of his tablets. He was urged to see his GP.

On Boxing Day last year family has struggled to wake him. When he woke up, he appeared to be ‘out of it’.

On January 17 this year he had gone with a friend to the Friar’s Pub in Haverfordwest. They had eaten together at his home later that evening.

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His ex-partner had spoken to him that night and he sounded slurred and distracted but made no mention of how he was feeling.

At around midday on January 18 she went to his flat after not getting a reply to numerous messages that morning. Mr Day came to the door but was argumentative and aggressive. She suspected he had been taking drugs and left.

For the rest of the day she tried to contact him without success so contacted a friend and asked him to visit the flat.

Both she and the friend ended up outside the flat but there was no reply.

They found a back door key, entered and found Mr Day. They called 999 and started CPR. An ambulance arrived but paramedics were unable to revive him.

A post-mortem gave a conclusion of poisoning due to a combination of benzodiazepines, cocaine and other drugs.

Pembrokeshire Coroner, Paul Bennett, returned a conclusion of drug related death, saying that Mr Day died from the combined toxic effects of prescribed and non-prescribed medication.

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