FORMER Suffolk man Stephen Lee Austin died at home following a drugs overdose, an inquest has heard.Mr Austin, who was 28, was also known as Ronnie Stephen Lee Godsell, and was called Lee by hisfamily and friends, died in his living room in Oswestry, Shropshire on March 13.

FORMER Suffolk man Stephen Lee Austin died at home following a drugs overdose, an inquest has heard.

Mr Austin, who was 28, was also known as Ronnie Stephen Lee Godsell, and was called Lee by his

family and friends, died in his living room in Oswestry, Shropshire on March 13.

Shropshire coroner John Ellery recorded a verdict of accidental death.

The inquest heard a post mortem examination revealed the cause of death was a morphine overdose.

The time of death could not be established however, as Mr Austin had not been seen for the whole weekend before being found on the Monday.

He was last seen by his ex-girlfriend, Joanna Dean on March 10, but she found him on the sofa when she returned on March 13 to collect some belongings.

The inquest also heard police searched the property and found a syringe in the kitchen bin.

Mr Austin had recently moved to Oswestry from Suffolk, where he had a history of taking drugs.

His mother, Margaret Austin, told the court he had been involved with drugs since the late 1990s. He had succeeded at times to get off drugs but moved to Oswestry to prevent going back to them.

She said: "He moved here and he was full of life. He was buying things for the house and getting a car."

It appeared that he had taken a small amount of morphine after an argument with his partner, but this had reacted with drugs that had built up in his system over the years and led to his death.

Mrs Austin said later that she had not been aware her son had taken any drugs since leaving Woodbridge - his problems seemed to ease when he moved away from the town.

In recording his verdict, Mr Ellery said there was nothing uncovered to suggest Mr Austin intended to take his own life and discarded a verdict of suicide.