THE grieving family of a drug addict who died from a heroin overdose eventually accepted the verdict of a coroner despite repeatedly questioning the thoroughness of a police investigation.

Lewis Oakes, 41, from The Pewfist in Westhoughton, died after injecting himself with what one doctor described as “an extremely large” amount of heroin, a court heard.

Mr Oakes’ three siblings, present at Bolton Coroner’s Court, initially refused to accept Greater Manchester Police’s version of events — that Mr Oakes’ neighbour Lorna Taylor was the last person to have seen him on May 13, 2016 before he was found dead two days later.

The family maintained in court that someone else had visited Mr Oakes’ property after Lorna Taylor had seen him and before he died.

Coroner Rachael Griffin asked GMP police coroner’s officer Peter Yates to contact investigating officers to see if further door-to-door inquiries could be made in the area around Mr Oakes’ house.

Police said such inquiries in The Pewfist were made during initial investigations and that further inquiries would not shed new light on proceedings.

Eventually the family agreed to let the inquest conclude on Wednesday afternoon and accepted that there was no third-party involvement in their brother’s death.

The result of a post-mortem examination found a level of 1182 of heroin in Mr Oakes’ body.

His body was found with a syringe underneath his body where he was lying and kitchen roll near where the needle pierced his skin.

Pathologist Patrick Waugh said: “This was an extremely high, fatal dose of heroin. Naïve users can die with a level of 50 in their body, tolerant users can die from 200.”

The court heard how Mr Oakes was visiting Bolton Integrated Drugs and Alcohol Service — BIDAS — in an attempt to reduce the amount of heroin he was taking.

Dr John Quinnell, from BIDAS, said meetings with Mr Oakes in March, 2016 were positive – he was enjoying redecorating his flat and had enjoyed getting back in regular contact with his family at Christmas.

Mr Oakes was also taking prescribed buprenorphine, in an attempt to reduce his dependency on heroin.

The court from Dr Quinnell how buprenorphine is a heroin ‘blocker’, limiting the effects of the drug, but that Mr Oakes would have been warned about this as a matter of course.

Summing up, Ms Griffin, said the cause of death was drug related, due to heroin toxicity.

“This is a particularly tragic case of a drug related death, as Lewis had future plans in place and had positive things in his life again, making positive changes to turn his life around.

“If anything good can come out of this, it is that it may be a warning to others of the dangers of using drugs, particularly heroin.”