Cocaine led to 28-year-old's death

An inquest has heard how a 28-year-old man died from heart failure as a result of heavy cocaine use.

Robert Johnston from Robin Hood Close, Cippenham, died at home on December 28.

His brother Peter Johnston lived with him and spoke at yesterday's resumed inquest at the Guildhall in Windsor.
Robert had confided in his brother 18 months earlier, that he had been spending several hundred pound a month on cocaine on a regular basis, and Peter noted that his brother had not been himself in recent months.

He told how he woke to noise and found Robert downstairs out of control swinging a chair leg, smashing furniture and shouting incoherently. When he smashed a glass cabinet with his fist, Peter sought refuge in the bathroom and called for help.
Police arrived to find him face down on the lounge floor and he was later pronounced dead.

The inquest heard he was a sociable and successful young man with a fun loving lifestyle which took him into an area of heavy drinking and regular drug use.

Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford, recorded a verdict of misadventure and concluded: "Cocaine toxicity at high levels is explanation for Robert's death and the behaviour before death was extremely consistent with high levels of cocaine."