A WREXHAM man who battled heroin addiction for over 25 years overdosed on the drug, an inquest heard.

Peter Griffiths, 55, was pronounced dead at his home address on Glaslyn in Plas Madoc, Acrefair on November 21, 2019.

An inquest held in Ruthin on Wednesday (September 30) into his death heard that Mr Griffiths had taken heroin and other substances with a friend on the evening of November 20.

The following day, his friend, Justin Darlington, found Mr Griffiths to be unresponsive on the sofa - with Mr Darlington presuming him to be asleep.

However, half an hour later Mr Darlington returned to the property to find Mr Griffiths still unresponsive, so Mr Darlington attempted to wake him by shaking him.

Unable to do so, Mr Darlington alerted the emergency services who attended the address, but despite all care and efforts Mr Griffiths, a father-of-two, was pronounced dead at 1.40pm.

The inquest heard that Mr Griffiths, described as the "comedian of the family", had been an abuser of heroin since about 1992, after he began to show signs of having the "weight of the world on his shoulders".

The court heard that Mr Griffiths suffered from mental illness and often struggled to have enough money for food and to pay his energy bills, but after receiving a back payment, and with the help of his daughter, he was said to be determined to turn his life around.

The inquest was told that Mr Griffiths had a lengthy medical record of drug-related health problems; which included numerous infections caused by intravenous injection, cellulitis, abscess' and that he was receiving treatment for a Hepatitis C infection.

A post-mortem examination into his death found evidence of opiate and methadone at levels commonly associated as being fatal, and a pathologist's provisional cause of recorded as opiate toxicity.

Mr Griffiths' death was recorded by Elizabeth Dudley-Jones, senior coroner for North Wales East and Central, as drug related.