A father of four died after swallowing a deadly dose of a friend's back pain medicine.

Paul Doherty, who would not even take a headache tablet, was found unconscious at a friend's flat in Devonshire Place, Brighton, at 8.15pm on July 3.

He was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital but died an hour later.

At Brighton Coroner's Court yesterday an inquest was told that Mr Doherty, 39, of Nuthurst Place, Brighton, had spent the night before his death at Anthony Brock's flat in Kemp Town.

The inquest was told that Mr Doherty was a heavy drinker who had not been able to work since losing four fingers on his left hand in a car crash in 1993.

On the evening of July 3 Mr Doherty, Mr Brock and Mr Parry were drinking at Mr Brock's basement flat.

At about 7.45pm Mr Brock and Mr Parry went to the cashpoint in St James's Street and left Mr Doherty sitting on the edge of the bed watching television.

They returned to the flat within five minutes of each other half an hour later.

The friends thought Mr Doherty had fallen asleep on the bed but later realised he had stopped breathing and his lips had turned blue.

Mr Parry called an ambulance and Mr Doherty was taken to hospital but pronounced dead at 9.15pm.

A post-mortem examination showed that he had died from morphine and alcohol poisoning, although the amount of morphine in his body alone would have been enough to kill him.

The court heard that Mr Brock was prescribed a liquid morphine called Oromorph, which he would take for a bad back.

Mr Brock told the court Mr Doherty knew he had to take Oromorph but had never asked him about it. He said he usually kept the bottle in a cupboard above the sink.

Mr Brock was arrested following Mr Doherty's death after allegations were made that he had administered the Oromorph to Mr Doherty without his knowledge, but there was no evidence to substantiate this.

The bottle was sent off for forensic tests and both men's DNA was found on the neck and rim of the bottle, although tests showed that there was more of Mr Doherty's DNA on the bottle than Mr Brock's.

Brighton coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley said: "Paul died when he ingested a seriously toxic level of alcohol in combination with a fatal level of Oromorph prescribed to a third party.

"The circumstances of how the Oromorph was ingested remain unclear but they are not suspicious."