A HAMPSHIRE man died on his friend’s sofa after taking medical and recreational drugs, an inquest heard.

Lee Prince, who was described as a regular drugs user, was found dead by his friend Stefano Zeffrini at his flat in Duncan Court in Anson Drive, Sholing.

Mr Prince, 38, from Tatwin Crescent in Thornhill, had been seeing the Solent NHS Trust’s substance misuse service, but stopped using it in June 2016.

Winchester Coroner’s Court heard Mr Prince had gone to Mr Zeffrini’s flat on October 12. He told Mr Zeffrini: “I have taken valium, I am off my face.”

The inquest heard he fell asleep at the flat. 

The court heard that Mr Zeffrini woke up and left the flat the next morning but didn’t notice anything unusual about Mr Prince. However, on his return at around 9.30am, Mr Zeffrini noticed Mr Prince was “blue”, and realised he was not breathing.

He called an ambulance and desperately tried to revive Mr Prince.

Paramedics arrived minutes later but despite their best efforts they were unable to save Mr Prince.

The inquest heard evidence from pathologist Dr Eleanor Jaynes who said Mr Prince had taken morphine, cocaine, diazapam, paracetamol, codeine and pregabalin.

Although none of the drugs was at toxic levels, she concluded that in combination they could have led to Mr Prince losing consciousness.

The inquest also heard Mr Prince died of bronchopneumonia which was likely to have been caused by the combination of drugs. She put hepatitis C as a contributing factor.

Senior coroner Grahame Short recorded a verdict of a drug-related death.

Mr Short said: “On the balance of probabilities he simply took some heroin, misjudged the amount in combination with the other drugs he took, and that could have been due to a reduced tolerance of the amount he could consume.”