Much-loved son found dead surrounded by bottles of ‘extremely dangerous’ gas

A much-loved son died after taking a lethal cocktail of drugs, an inquest heard this week.

Wayne Peter Pearson had spent the night of February 9 of this year at his friend Christopher Poore’s home in Abraham Street in Blackburn. Wayne had been “off his head” on butane gas which he had recently started inhaling according to his friend.

The following morning Christopher woke up and found Wayne, 37, kneeling on the floor next to his bed in an unresponsive condition. Christopher called an ambulance but Wayne was sadly pronounced dead.

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At an inquest held this week (June 14) at Blackburn Town Hall, Wayne’s family heard how post mortem toxicology tests revealed a catalogue of drugs in his system at the time of his death. They included medications not prescribed to him, along with evidence for cocaine and heroin use.

Butane gas cannot be detected in the blood post mortem but the inquest heard that when police searched the property they found 15 bottles which each contained 500ml. Christopher Poore told police in a statement: “I’ve known [Wayne] for two years, he has been a drug user throughout this time however he has recently been a gas user for one year.”

Assistant Coroner Sian Jones described how butane gas is “extremely dangerous”. Inhaling the gas can cause an irregular heartbeat, depress the respiratory system and result in a lack of oxygen reaching vital organs.

Detective Inspector Steven Slater, from Lancashire Constabulary, was called to the scene after Wayne was found dead. “He had spent the previous day with Mr Poore,” the DI said.

“We found a quantity of butane gas canisters… and some prescribed drug packets in the name of Mr Poore. Mr Poore told us the day before he had been drinking and inhaling the gas.

“He [Mr Poore] left the premises to go and collect his money from the cash machine in the middle of the night and returned home. Mr Pearson was in the bedroom, he had taken the gas and Mr Poore then went to bed at around 1am and described Mr Pearson as snoring.”

In his statement Christopher told police that throughout the course of February 9 “Wayne had been off his head on beer and gas all day”. The inquest heard that Wayne had been an alcoholic for some time but had managed to remain sober while in prison a few years earlier.

Returning a conclusion of a drug-related death the coroner said: “Wayne was reported as having used a lot [of butane gas] in the hours before death. Even in the absence of butane gas there were, in my opinion, sufficient drugs in his system to explain his death.”

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