A FATHER from Abergavenny died as a result of drug use, a coroner has concluded.

James Matthew Seabourne was pronounced dead by paramedics on Friday, January 24, this year.

An ambulance and police officers had been called to Mr Seabourne's home address, in St George's Crescent, after friends found the 36-year-old unresponsive on his kitchen floor.

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The inquest at Newport on Tuesday was told Mr Seabourne had not been seen or heard from for several days, prompting friends to enter his flat with a spare key.

There they found Mr Seabourne in the kitchen, and there was evidence of drug use.

A toxicology report showed heroin was present in Mr Seabourne's bloodstream, and Caroline Saunders, the senior coroner for Gwent, was told the Abergavenny man had previously undergone treatment with the Gwent Drug and Alcohol Service (GDAS), ending in October 2019.

"Sadly, throughout [that period] James did not manage to sustain abstinence from heroin," she said, recording Mr Seabourne's cause of death as heroin toxicity.

Ms Saunders extended her sincere condolences to Mr Seabourne's family.