A HEAVY drinking virtual recluse who had paranoid schizophrenia died from a toxic level of anti-psychotic medication, an inquest heard.

Gareth Mullineaux, a painter until his mental illness developed, was found dead on the bathroom floor of his mother’s house in Harper Green Road, Farnworth, on the morning of September 14 last year.

The unemployed 34-year-old typically drank around eight cans of lager a night and smoked 40 cigarettes a day and was on a waiting list for a bed at a detox clinic when he died.

Mr Mullineaux had been prescribed clozapine since 1999 and was also taking amisulpride, both types of anti-psychotic medication, Bolton Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday.

He was treated in hospital for an overdose several years ago and it prompted his mother to regulate his access to the tablets by putting his prescription medication under lock and key in a safe from which she would provide him with a daily dose.

In December, 2014 Mr Mullineaux suffered a traumatic brain injury in a serious assault and was placed in an induced coma in hospital and underwent surgery. The day before he died he fainted and fell down the stairs at his mother’s house, suffering a black eye, a small cut to the nose and graze on his chin, but the pathologist who conducted the post-mortem examination said there was no connection between either incident and his death.Coroner Alan Walsh said: “We can exclude the injuries sustained in the assault and we can exclude any injuries suffered in the fall down the stairs on September 13 or any other fall.“There were no medical diseases affecting the organs or body that could account for the death.“The level of amisulpride was therapeutic. So we’re only left with clozapine.” Coroner Alan Walsh was told post-mortem toxicity tests showed Mr Mullineaux had a reading of 4.9mg/litre of clozapine in his blood when the usual range is between 0.15mg and 1mg.

The inquest was told “lifestyle factors” such as the liver damage brought on by his alcohol abuse, combined with the post-death ‘leaching’ of the medication from organs into blood, could account for such a high reading but nevertheless it was a toxic level that can cause convulsions and an irregular heart rhythm that can prove fatal.

Mr Walsh said: “The cause of death will come as a shock to his family.“Gareth’s problems were long-standing due to his mental health but more importantly due to his misuse of alcohol over many, many years. I don’t believe there is evidence of an intention to harm himself or end his life.”

Conclusion: Misadventure.