A DAD was found dead in his own bed by his son after taking a toxic cocktail of drugs, an inquest has heard.

Jonathan Wren, 51, was found by his son, who had gone to wake him up, on the afternoon of April 5, 2024 at his home on Drake Street in Barrow where he lived with his father and brother.

In a statement submitted to Cockermouth Coroner's Court by Mr Wren's father, he said his son had battled with drug addiction and alcoholism for most of his adult life and had been 'in and out' of both young offenders institutes and prison until around ten years ago.

He had attended rehabilitation courses and was receiving support from Recovery Steps Cumbria at the time of his death.

Of the night before his son’s death, Mr Wren said he had gone home after an evening out at the Legion club to find his Jonathan appearing 'drunk and out of it as if he'd taken drugs'.

He said he was 'bumping into things' and had been like that since he had gone out for the night the weekend before.

Mr Wren's father said his son had said goodnight at around 11.45pm and went to his top-floor bedroom.

He then woke up at 3am to hear him snoring, which was 'normal', and then got up at around 7am, but didn't check on his son at that point.

Jonathan Wren's son them came to visit at around 2.40pm that afternoon on April 5, at which time Mr Wren was still in his room.

His father then sent Mr Wren's son to wake him up but he instead made the tragic discovery and Mr Wren’s father called 999.

Assistant Coroner for Cumbria Dr Nicholas Shaw said toxicology samples showed a level of morphine 'associated with fatal heroin use' in Mr Wren’s system but with no 'obvious' heroin markers.

Tests also revealed the presence of a substance from the benzodiazepine family of drugs

A post-mortem examination also showed that Mr Wren's heart was 'enlarged and dilated'.

Dr Shaw considered that this was 'most likely secondary to chronic alcohol abuse', and that given the toxicology result was not a direct cause of death.

He said that on the balance of probabilities, the levels of morphine and a substance from the benzodiazepine family of drugs coupled with another prescribed drug would have caused respiratory depression and death.

Dr Shaw accepted the medical cause of death of multiple drug toxicity with a contributory factor of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, and concluded that Mr Wren's death was drug related.