AN EPILEPSY sufferer died of natural causes linked to an accident which left him with a brain injury 14 years ago, an inquest has heard.

Newport Coroner’s Court heard that Jonathan Pike, from Caldicot, had been “mowed down” by a drunk driver while walking home at the age of 19 in 2002.

He sustained a life-changing brain injury, which meant he could not finish his studies or live independently, and he was put on medication for epilepsy.

Mr Pike was awarded compensation for his injury and went on to live with his girlfriend, Margaret Wilkinson, in Caldicot.

The coroner’s court heard on May 2 last year, Mr Pike, then 33, was punched in the face after he asked a visitor to leave his home. He was taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital but nothing showed up on his CT scan.

After he was discharged from hospital, Mr Pike stayed with his mother, Claudia Hodges, who gave evidence at his inquest today.

Noting that he had suffered an epileptic fit a year previously, which caused a clot on his brain, and worried that he was not taking his medication, Mrs Hodges slept in the same room as her son.

In the early hours of May 5, Mrs Hodges returned to her own room after Mr Pike told her he was OK.

At around 8am, she told the court that she heard a “loud noise” but thought nothing of it, presuming her son was just getting ready for a hospital appointment.

She said: “I heard a door banging. I thought he got up to get ready.

“I went downstairs and got a cup of tea. I went back upstairs to check he was ready and I couldn’t see him.

“I went into his bedroom and he was on the floor.”

Dr Stephen Leadbeatter, Home Office pathologist at the University Hospital of Wales, carried out the post-mortem examination on May 6, 2015.

He found that Mr Pike died of recurrent meningococcal meningitis in association with his brain injury.

Giving documentary evidence in court, he said Mr Pike was "susceptible" because of the brain injury he suffered at the age of 19.

He said: “Jonathan may have suffered a terminal seizure which was triggered by the recurrent meningococcal meningitis.”

Deputy coroner Wendy James ruled out any link between the punch Mr Pike suffered days previously and the circumstances of his death.

She said: “There was nothing in the post-mortem examination at all to link the incident of May 2 to Jonathan’s cause of death.

“After considering all the evidence before me and the circumstances available to me, I consider the correct conclusion of Jonathan’s death is that he died of natural causes.”