Lifeless body of great-grandad was found in his car five days after he left home saying he ‘didn’t feel right’

Retired bus inspector Leslie Fielding drove off from his home in Haydock on Saturday, June 17, the day before his 77th birthday.

An inquest into his death at Bolton Coroners' Court heard that he had been hit hard by the deaths in quick succession of his older brother and sister, the latter having died on the day Mr Fielding was last seen alive.

The alarm was raised by the pensioner’s wife, Janet, when he failed to return home the following day and it was discovered that a large amount of medication was missing.

Despite a "missing from home" alert for a high-risk person being put out by police, and extensive searches carried out by members of his family, it was only by chance that Mr Fielding’s Toyota RAV 4 car was found in a remote corner of a public car park in Garswood Street, Ashton – near the Greensway Centre – on the morning of Thursday, June 22.

He was pronounced dead at the scene by North West Ambulance Service.

It is believed that Mr Fielding drove to the location on the Saturday evening he left his home, on the pretext of going to hospital because he "didn't feel right."

However, when his body was discovered in the back seat of the car - which had heavily blacked-out windows - the following Thursday morning, he was surrounded by broken blister packs and a subsequent post-mortem found he may have ingested as many as 100 paracetamol and codeine tablets belonging to his wife.

Mrs Fielding told the inquest that her husband enjoyed being outdoors and messing about with cars.

She added: "It was out of character for him to go missing because he never left us for more than an hour. On the day, he didn't seem in distress or upset. His death came as a shock to me and other members of the family."

A subsequent post mortem discovered "much higher than a therapeutic concentration" of codeine and paracetamol in Mr Fielding's system, and the medical cause of death was given as combined drug toxicity.

The coroner, Mike Pemberton, said the effect of his siblings' recent deaths on Mr Fielding had been "quite immense," and that a degree of planning had gone into his death with the taking of drugs which didn't belong to him. He concluded the cause of death was suicide.

Members of Mr Fielding’s family took to social media to pay tribute to him at the time of his death.

His nephew Dan Deasy said: “A shocking and tragic end to a desperate five days, my uncle Les.

"He taught me to drive, he took me to swimming lessons at Harpurhey baths, a dearly loved husband, father, brother, brother in law, father in law, uncle, grandad and great grandad and a real character.”

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