A RETIRED butcher died of an overdose of drugs and alcohol which he had used for years to ease back pain, an inquest heard yesterday.
Charles Jenkins Mason, 58, died at his home in Ullswater Close, Spennymoor, last June after taking more than three times the recommended therapeutic dose of painkiller tablets.
His wife, Faith, told the hearing, at Bishop Auckland, that her husband had drank heavily in secret and that she had tried many times to warn him of the risks of taking so many tablets for his bad back.
South Durham coroner Colin Penna recorded an open verdict
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