Blackpool coroner rules on death of man, 56, found dead at Renart Hotel on Blackpool Prom
The coroner has ruled the death of a 56-year-old man found at a Blackpool hotel as misadventure.
Paul Wilkinson was found by friends in his room at the Renart Hotel on the Promenade, where he lived, in the early hours on November 18 last year.
He was slumped in a chair with evidence that a ligature had been around his neck but coroner Andrew Cousins ruled that although the cause of death was clearly hanging, there was no evidence that Mr Wilson had intended to take his own life.
Marilyn Rogers, who lived at the same hotel, was among a group of friends who found Mr Wilkinson when they went to check on him, as they were often in the habit of doing.
She said in a statement that he had been using drugs for a long time but had been in a particular “downward spiral” in the days leading up to his death because his brother, with whom he was close and who had also lived at the hotel, had left to live in Manchester.
Another friend, Sinead Atkins, said in a statement that Mr Wilkinson was on a weekly prescription of methadone, and pathologist Dr Darak Golka said that a toxicology report had shown evidence of that, along with cannabis and cocaine in his blood.
Dr Dolka added that the substance levels were not sufficient to have been the primary cause of death but they could have had been enough to have had an effect of Mr Wilkinson’s state of mind.
Along with ligature marks on Mr Wilkinson’s next, a post mortem conducted by Dr Golka had found evidence of injections on both arms as well as on other parts of his body.
Det Sgt Bryony Culshaw, who was called to the scene by first responders after Mr Wilkinson’s body was found shortly after midnight on November 18, said a ligature was found but had been removed from around Mr Wilkinson’s neck by the friends who found him.
“There was no sign of violence on him and I saw evidence of several empty methadone containers around him,” said DS Culshaw.
In delivery his misadventure verdict, coroner Mr Cousins offered his condolences to Mr Wilkinson’s family.
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