A gardener died from a heroin overdose despite a friend's attempts to resuscitate him, following a day taking cocaine and drinking alcohol.

Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner Ian Singleton heard that James Ifor Cordey, 45, of Winsley Road, Bradford on Avon, died on September 19, 2022

The inquest was told that freelance gardener Mr Cordey died in a flat on St Margaret’s Hill, Bradford on Avon, after spending the day socialising in the town and drinking alcohol with his friend Patrick Dunning.

The pair later decided to go to Trowbridge to buy £10-worth of heroin from a drug dealer they had used before, and then shared it equally between them at around 7.30pm.

In a statement, Mr Dunning told the inquest in Salisbury they had both injected themselves with the drug, after earlier taking cocaine.

He saw immediately Mr Cordey was having a “bad reaction” to the heroin, as he had experienced a similar situation with him about a month before.

He tried to revive his friend to effect, despite using anti-opiate drug Naloxone, which he administered after three minutes.

Mr Dunning called 999 at 7.59pm and the emergency services advised him to try CPR on Mr Cordey while he waited for paramedics to arrive.

“I thought I could find a faint pulse and pulled Jim down off the sofa onto the floor as directed by the ambulance service over the phone.

“I was advised to start CPR. I was really pushing into Jim’s chest and kept the chest compressions going until the paramedics arrived.”

But despite the paramedics taking over within 10-15 minutes of his call, they were unable to save Mr Cordey’s life and he was pronounced dead at 21.03pm.

The coroner heard from Mr Cordey’s GPs that in October 2006 he was said to have a “heroin-dependence” and in 2017 was said to be suffering from major depression with psychotic features.

He was also a heavy drinker who consumed 9-11 units of alcohol on a daily basis, the inquest on Monday (July 3) was told.

Mr Singleton said toxicology reports showed 78mg of cocaine/100ml of blood. There was 150mg of morphine/100ml of blood, consistent with cases of fatal heroin use.

He recorded a drug-related verdict, with the cause of death being heroin toxicity and alcohol intoxication.