POLICE are hunting a drug dealer after a former mechanic died of a lethal cocktail of morphine and alcohol.

Divorced Anthony McMullen, 46, was found by his mother, who told of her shock after learning her son was a secret drug abuser.

Eliza Jane McMullen believed her son had a brain tumour and could die at any moment and at first thought he had committed suicide.

She said she had no idea Mr McMullen, of West View, Stacksteads, had been injecting heroin and cocaine for several years.

A Burnley inquest heard how the student had enough morphine in his blood to kill him on its own, as well as more than three times the drink drive limit of alcohol. A police chief said it was "still a mystery" how Mr McMullen, who died on February 10, got hold of the drugs and officers were making enquiries.

Mrs McMullen, who also lives in West View, said she saw her son going to college the day before, but didn't have conversation with him. On February 10, he was due to have a washing machine delivered. She met the delivery man and got no reply from her son's home. The door was unlocked, they walked in and Mr McMullen was lying on the settee, with a needle near by. She told the hearing: "I realised what it was although I had never seen one before. He lived with us for 14 months before he got his own flat, but I never saw a thing. Nothing at all."

She said her son was not depressed and was "quite jovial."

Home Office pathologist, Dr John Rutherford, said Mr McMullen suffered from epilepsy, had a benign tumour of the blood vessels in the brain - which could have gone on to rupture - and coronary artery narrowing causing risk of a heart attack.

He had a significant amount of morphine and alcohol in his blood, which depressed respiration. The amount of morphine, which could have been administered as morphine or heroin, was sufficient to cause death on its own. The doctor, who told the hearing he suspected Mr McMullen had used morphine "on and off", said the cause of death was drug toxicity.

Detective Inspector Ron Griffiths said CID investigations had not been able to establish where the morphine or heroin came from. It was still a mystery how Mr McMullen got hold of the drug and enquiries were ongoing.

He went on: "We feel no third party was involved in the cause of his death. Our main concern was that there was a supply of this particular drug."

Recording a verdict of misadventure, East Lancs coroner David Smith said Mr McMullen had left no evidence he was trying to end his life.

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