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A COCKTAIL of alcohol and drugs killed a man just hours after his electronic police tag had been removed.

An inquest into the death of Shaun Wells, 24, of Whitsbury Road, Fordingbridge, heard that he was found collapsed in a club toilet having drunk heavily and taken methadone and diazepam.

Deputy coroner Gordon Denson recorded a verdict of accidental death due to non-dependent drug abuse at Southampton Coroner's Court. Delivering his verdict the coroner said: "I don't accept for one moment that he intended to take his own life."

Det Sgt Andy Lupton told the inquest that the tag was removed 12 hours early by a private company for unknown reasons. He added Mr Wells, a drainage worker, had never breached his curfew before so it is unlikely that the incident would have happened if his tag had been left on. He had been wearing the tag for four months after admitting affray.

On the night that the tag was removed Mr Wells had gone to a social club and later moved on to the Fordingbridge Club when his mother got a call from the club asking her to pick him up. When she arrived he insisted he wanted to stay and she went home.

When he was found collapsed in the toilet the club called her again and she picked him up. The following morning his mother found him dead.

6:58am Tuesday 13th May 2008

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