A MAN who collapsed in a Hereford public toilet in June, dying in hospital days later, was found to have methadone and heroin in his system, an inquest heard.

Robert Ward, 41, left his 15-year-old son in town to go and inject heroin with a friend, an inquest at Hereford Town Hall was told on Monday.

The dose caused Mr Ward to suffer a heart attack and he died on June 7 at Hereford County Hospital following a hypoxic brain injury.

Coroner Mark Bricknell said: “It seems that Mr Ward took a dose of drugs and the drugs taken caused a collapse.”

The inquest heard how Mr Ward had met his son in town on June 3.

CCTV showed him later going to a pharmacy with a friend, then around 2pm, the pair went into a public toilet together.

Minutes later, the footage showed Mr Ward’s friend emerging from the toilet waving his arms and attempting to attract the attention of passer-by.

Paramedics attended the scene six minutes later, and took Mr Ward to hospital, while police officers identified drug paraphernalia in the toilet.

When they spoke to Mr Ward’s associate, he told them that the pair had been drinking cider, before Mr Ward, of no fixed abode, offered him heroin.

They ‘cooked’ the drug in the toilet and drew it into two separate syringes.

After Mr Ward injected his syringe he began to slur and slumped to the ground, the inquest heard.

His friend tried to get help, before going in to another toilet and injecting his own syringe.

The ambulance arrived at East Street at 2.20pm and Mr Ward was taken to the hospital, where he stayed in intensive care for four days before he died.

He had been part of DASH’s drug rehabilitation scheme since 1997, although his last contact with a representative was on May 23.

However DASH had received no contact from the pharmacy to indicate that Mr Ward – who was on methadone to help stabilise his condition – hadn’t been collecting his prescription.

Paul Taylor, from DASH, said: “He found it very difficult to live his life without having some substance in his system.”

Mr Bricknell retuned a verdict of drug-related death.