A MAN drank himself to death, following a festive binge, an inquest was told.

A verdict of misadventure was recorded on the death of unemployed 49-year-old David Arundel

Teesside Coroner Michael Sheffield said death had followed consumption of an "acute excess of alcohol".

Divorced Mr Arundel, of Carmarthen Road, Middlesbrough, died of an uncommon but medically recognised condition of severe acute fatty liver.

Pathologist Adrienne Mutton explained: "The liver normally has a function metabolising fat.

"If you drink enough in a short space of time you will cause such drastic damage to the liver that it cannot perform its function of metabolising fat.''

She said this had happened in the case of Mr Arundel who had a long history of alcohol abuse and had been advised by his GP to seek help.

She said his death was not due to his long-term history but the result of a binge.

PC Gaynor Henderson said she found a number of empty lager cans and wine bottles in the living room of Mr Arundel's Priestfields flat.

Mr Arundel's son, Graham Arundel, of Romsey Road, Stockton, last spoke to his father on Boxing Day when he appeared well.

His body was discovered, with his pet dog sitting over it, on January 3.

The inquest heard that Mr Arundel senior had told doctors he blamed a divorce in the mid 1990s for his drinking problem