A MAN who was escorted home by police for being drunk and threatening to throw himself into a reservoir, was found dead the next day by his wife as she returned home from a nightshift.

On the evening of December 27, Mark Nuttall was found by police in Haslingden in an intoxicated state and making suicide threats.

Officers took him back to his home on York Avenue, but he was found dead the next day.

At an inquest in Preston, coroner Richard Taylor said, after police brought Mr Nuttall home, he had gone to sleep. He got up and went for a short walk, which is when he was last seen.

Mr Taylor said: “He returned home after his walk and went back to bed. His wife was working a nightshift and came home at 8am on December 28. She didn’t wake him up at that time, but shortly after 10am she found him unresponsive on the floor by the side of the bed.”

The emergency services were called but the 54-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

Toxicology was requested and the report noted the blood ethanol concentration found in Mr Nuttall’s system demonstrated profound and potentially fatal intoxication.

There was also evidence of Librium in his blood, a drug generally used to treat symptoms of withdrawal from alcohol.

Mr Taylor said: “The therapeutic effects of that medication may have enhanced the sedative effects of the alcohol.”

A statement from his wife, Amanda, said that over the last three years her husband had started to drink heavily, and three weeks prior to his death he was signed off sick from work.

Mr Taylor said: “During this period he started to misuse alcohol heavily, but then would go through lengthy periods of abstinence. Mrs Nuttall said that over Christmas he hadn’t been drinking at all, but started again the day before his death.”

The inquest heard that despite his threats of suicide on December 27, Mr Nuttall had never before shown any intent to take his own life.

Mr Taylor recorded a conclusion of an alcohol-related death.