Wigan man found dead at home after taking heroin

Nigel Turner, 56, had received support from drug and alcohol misuse service We Are With You between April 2013 and January 2022 to address his use of illicit morphine and other substances.

He was prescribed methadone as a substitute for heroin, given naloxone in case of an overdose and received harm reduction advice.

But an inquest at Bolton Coroner’s Court heard he failed to attend some appointments and was discharged in February 2022 when he stopped engaging with the service.

Mr Turner, who was brought up in Pemberton, had been a carer for his mother Ann Turner for eight years, but did not speak to her about his drug use.

In a statement, she said she did not know when he started taking drugs and believed he did not want to worry her by talking about it.

He may have spent money left to him by his aunt last year “unwisely” by using some of it to buy drugs, she said.

Mr Turner was last seen by his friend Aidan Kenny at around 10pm on Friday, March 10, when he called at his house and collected diazepam tablets from him.

The following day, Mr Kenny saw a light was on in Mr Turner’s flat on Greenhey, Orrell, at around 5pm and thought it was unusual.

He had a spare key, so opened the door to the property and found his friend slumped and unresponsive on a chair, with a needle nearby on the floor.

The inquest – which was a documentary hearing with no witnesses or relatives in attendance – heard paramedics were called, but Mr Turner was confirmed to have died.

Tests showed he had taken a number of drugs, with the levels of morphine and heroin found to be “very high”, and his medical cause of death was recorded as acute morphine (heroin) toxicity.

A police investigation did not find any suspicious circumstances or signs of third party involvement in his death.

Coroner Prof Dr Alan Walsh recorded Mr Turner’s death was drug-related.