A Blackburn father has said “I miss him dearly” as an inquest ruled his son died after taking a cocktail of drugs.

Lucas Botterill, 33, was found dead at his home in Curzon Place, having taken codeine, crack cocaine, valium and methadone.

Whilst the levels of drugs taken were considered to be at a therapeutic level, rather than fatal, it was found that they had enhanced the sedative and respiratory effect of the codeine and increased its toxicity.

Lucas was a known heroin and cocaine addict and had told his partner, Sam Rhodes that he had hoped to stop taking the drugs following his release from prison.

On the night the couple, and their housemate Mark Brown shared crack cocaine and Lucas fell asleep and had been snoring loudly.

At 7.30am on June 19, Sam found Lucas unresponsive and tried to wake him but was unable to.

Lucas’ father said: “He was a vibrant lad, hard-working, put his family first, looked after anybody, a very loving son and I miss him dearly.”

Preston Coroners Court heard how Lucas had left his home and went to get Sam’s prescription.

He returned two hours later and was said to be clearly under the influence of drugs, with her statement saying that his eyes were rolling to the back of his head and that he was wobbly on his feet.

It was unclear what he had done whilst he was out and the police were unable to recover any CCTV of his time away from the house.  

A witness statement provided by Sam said: “I have known Lucas for around 10 years, we originally met buying drugs together and we have been really close for all that time.

“Since he got out of prison, he has been very secretive about taking drugs and (said he) wouldn’t take speed, crack or heroin again. I think he had taken something whilst he was out.”

After returning to the address, Lucas ingested a strip of Pregabalin, equating to 1,400mg all at once before sharing a crack pipe with Mark and Sam.

Coroner Laura Fox said: “I find Lucas was a much-loved 33-year-old but he did have a history of cocaine and heroin addiction.

“The combined use of drugs may have increased the sedative effects of the codeine and increased risk of death. There was evidence of cocaine use which can be associated with cardiac impairment and there was use of paracetamol.

“Excessive drug taking was not unusual for Lucas and his body could not cope with the interplay of the drugs in his system.”

Detective Inspector Tommy Woodhouse gave evidence stating that there had been no signs of disturbance and the property and was certain that there were no suspicious circumstances in Lucas’ death.

Ms Fox concluded the cause of death was multi-drug toxicity.