A surfer was found dead after overdosing on a cocktail of hard drugs and alcohol.

Nick Browne, 29, and his partner Angela Freebury were regular users of the dance drug ecstasy - but became embroiled in Brighton and Hove's deadly drugs scene after moving to the city and graduating to cocaine.

Friends found him dead in a flat above an empty shop in Lewes Road, Brighton, on December 27.

He had taken heroin, possibly cocaine, and sleeping tablets after drinking heavily, his inquest was told today.

Mr Browne's death has once again highlighted the growing menace of drugs on the streets of Brighton and Hove.

The Argus revealed last month that 11 people had died from super-strength heroin overdoses in the city in the first 11 weeks of 2008 - four times higher than the same period in the previous year.

Detective Sergeant Ian Still, who investigated Mr Browne's death, said: "This is another example of how so-called recreational drugs ruin lives.

"People should not touch them because it progresses to harder drugs and ultimately to tragedies like this.

"We are still trying to find the person who supplied Nick on the night he died and appeal to anyone with information to come forward."

Mr Brown lived with Ms Freebury and their son in Plymouth Avenue, Brighton, and had a job in property maintenance.

Ms Freebury said: "We met in 1999 and fell in love straight away and I ended up living with him.

"We used to go raving and started taking ecstasy to have a good time. It never became a must have habit."

She said the couple went travelling in Australia to get away from the rave scene and she had their son there.

They left Australia after an accident and returned to Newquay, Cornwall, where they became part of the surfing scene.

Ms Freebury said: "We started taking ecstasy again but it was only when we returned to Brighton that we were introduced to cocaine.

"Nick liked taking it when we were out at a party, having a good time but it was once or twice a month, not all the time.

"He had tried ketamine but did not like it but most definitely did not take heroin.

"He used to make me swear I would never take it and he swore to me that he never would.

"We both knew it was a one way road to disaster and that taking cocaine was bad enough."

She said she realised things were beginning to go wrong when Nick slowly began to be affected by his drug use.

She said: "He would get really paranoid and accuse me of all sorts of things. He was not the person I fell in love with.

"He knew it was not the right thing for him and pleaded for me to help him stop it."

The couple moved to South Africa in 2003 in a bid to get away from the drugs scene in Brighton and Hove.

They decided to come back to Brighton in July last year and ended up taking cocaine at a party.

Ms Freebury said: ìNick never spoke to me about smoking heroin and I thought he would have been open and honest with me.î She said in the month before he died Nick had become increasingly worried about taking cocaine.

Ms Freebury said she "put our relationship on the line" and told him he had to make changes.

He went to see a counsellor to get help for his problems and she thought he was on the road to recovery.

She said he went out with his step-brother Sean Swonnell on Boxing Day.

Mr Swonnell told the inquest they drank in a pub and then went to the Audio night club on Brighton seafront.

He said he saw Mr Browne shaking hands with a black man in a trench coat inside the club and thought a drugs deal had taken place.

Mr Swonnell said he had never supplied his friiend with drugs but later admitted giving him with the prescription drug valium to help him sleep.

Jennifer Trehern, Mr Browne's mother, said: "The Nick I knew was loving and quiet.

"He loved to travel and to do anything that gave him a sense of freedom like surfing.

"He would always stand up and tell the truth and we had a loving relationship.

We were friends as well as parent and son.

"I knew my son was taking recreational drugs but it was not until just before Christmas that I found out it was cocaine.

"He would say 'mum, you don't need to worry, it is under control'."

Dr Peter Sharpe said there were "extremely high traces of heroin constituents" in Mr Bowne's blood plasma.

He had drunk more than twice the legal alcohol limit for driving and there were also traces of the sleeping tablet diazapam and codeine.

Assistant deputy coroner Dr Karen Henderson ruled that Mr Browne died of an accidental multiple drugs overdose.

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