THE death of a 31-year-old man who had been staying with a homeless project was drug related, an inquest has ruled.

Jay Scott Toomey had been living at Gateway Burnley on Mitre Street for the three weeks leading up to his death on March 13, 2021.

Assistant coroner Mark Williams heard that Mr Toomey had suffered from drug problems for some time, however his difficulties had spiralled over the last 12 months and staying in the facility may have exposed him to other people’s drug use.

At Friday's hearing at Accrington Town Hall, Mr Williams said: “One of the draw backs of a place like that is that there are people there in a similar situation so there is that risk.”

However, Mr Williams said the evidence he had heard convinced him that Mr Toomey was “a decent lad apart from his problems with drugs.”

The inquest heard from Mr Toomey’s mother Paula that he had been “sofa surfing” for some time before ending up staying at Gateway and that the family was aware of some of his drug problems, however to their knowledge he did not regularly take heroin.

A statement from Dr Santhosh Davis of Burnley Wood Medical Centre confirmed that Mr Toomey had a history of mental health difficulties, including low moods and sleeping problems and he had expressed thoughts of self-harm but not of taking his own life.

He was proscribed antidepressants and given a crisis number to call and the team kept in contact with Mr Toomey and advised him to attend counselling sessions.

The surgery last had contact with Mr Toomey, from Burnley, in early March 2021.

A post-mortem examination carried out by Dr Susan Cox concluded that Mr Toomey was known to have been staying in sheltered accommodation, that he was taking prescription drugs and that other street drugs had possibly been involved.

A blood sample analysis from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals found suggestions he had taken heroin; however, this was at the lower end of the scale of that usually found in fatalities.

This did not suggest excessive use, however there was also evidence of the use of cocaine as well as benzodiazepine, etizolam, pregabalin and fluoxetine.

The report stated that the use of other drugs alongside heroin increased the risk of death.

Mr Williams said: “It’s the use of one on top of another, on top of another that has the effect of depressing the respiratory functions.”

PC Katherine Funnell of Burnley Police Station, who had been called to the scene after Mr Toomey was found unresponsive by staff at Gateway, confirmed that there were no signs of suspicious injuries or of third-party involvement and that as such there was no evidence that Mr Toomey was the victim of a violent crime.

CPR was attempted however, an ambulance that arrived seven minutes later pronounced Mr Toomey dead.

Having heard this evidence, Mr Williams concluded that Mr Toomey had died of aspiration pneumonia combined with multiple drug toxicity ruled his death as “drug related.”