A DRUNKEN party prank which led to the death of two friends has prompted relatives to warn of the tragic consequences of “foolish games”.

The grandfather of David Bexley spoke out after an inquest heard the 21-year-old died 13 months after Sean Mcleod played the “joke” on his unconscious pal.

David stopped breathing after clumps of hair shaved from his body were stuffed into his mouth – together with margarine, which was also daubed across his genitals.

He was resuscitated by an ambulance crew, but spent two months in a coma.

Shortly afterwards, epilepsy sufferer Sean, also 21, took a lethal dose of methadone after he was questioned by police over the incident.

Both friends lived in Sedgefield, County Durham, and David’s grandfather John Bexley, 79, said: “I hope people take notice of this and stop these foolish games.”

David, a joiner, was living with his grandparents in Lambton Crescent, and was preparing to move to Johannesburg, South Africa, to live with his father, also called John.

The inquest heard David had been drinking all day and had taken two lots of methadone painkillers when he ended up at a friend’s house in Meadowgate Road, Trimdon Station, in the early hours of October 13, 2007.

He fell into a deep sleep and Sean decided to shave hair from all over his body and shove some down his throat.

David stopped breathing six hours later due to the cocktail of drink, drugs and hair restricting his airflow, the Hartlepool inquest heard.

He died in the University Hospital of Hartlepool, on November 18, last year, from pneumonia brought on by his long ordeal.

Coroner Malcolm Donnelly recorded an open verdict after a pathology report by Dr Jennifer Ruth Hamilton concluded the alcohol, methadone and hair blockage could have “equally reduced his reflex to breathe”.

The inquest heard that David had been asleep for two hours when Sean began using a vacuum cleaner on his face and private parts.

He then shaved his eyebrows and scalp and shoved hair in David’s mouth before putting margarine down his throat and over his genitals.

David still failed to wake and at 10.45am friends noticed he had stopped breathing.

David was in a coma for eight weeks and spent nine months in hospital, before being rushed to the University Hospital of Hartlepool, where he died of pneumonia.

Sean, who was a close friend of Sedgefield boxer Bradley Saunders, took a methadone overdose on December 4, 2007.

An inquest at Bishop Auckland in March last year recorded that Sean, of The Meadows, Sedgefield, died from non-dependent abuse of drugs.

Mr Donnelly said: “What seems to have started as a prank has ended in tragedy.

“The reason these inquests are held in public are to warn people of the potential dangers of this type of folly.”