A MAN died after taking what he believed were steroids - but was actually insulin, an inquest heard.

The hearing was told that unemployed Shane Raeburn was feeling unwell and took a dose of steroids to give him the strength to visit his local post office and collect his benefits.

But instead of steroids the 43-year-old ardent Clarets fan’s syringe contained insulin and he collapsed and died, Burnley Coroner’s Court was told.

Detectives from Lancashire police launched an investigation after Mr Raeburn’s death at his home in Barnes Street, Clayton-le-Moors, arresting his 19-year-old son Christian and family friend Mark Campbell.

The inquest heard that another man, named for the first time as Christopher MacIntyre, also of Clayton, had also been injected with insulin.

He was hospitalised as a result of the incident but did survive the trauma, although he is still described as being ‘very poorly’.

Police investigations centred on the circumstances surrounding Mr Raeburn and Mr MacIntyre being injected, on or around November 28 last year.

But Detective Inspector Paul Withers confirmed to the inquest that no-one had been charged surrounding the subsequent inquiry.

He said: “I am not convinced we will ever know who injected Shane with the insulin. But I am satisfied that, whether he injected himself or someone injected him, it was consensual.”

The inquest heard that the insulin is thought to have come from an unused prescription of a diabetic sufferer locally.

But it is believed to have passed through “one or two hands” before coming into the possession of Mr Raeburn and Mr MacIntyre, and was not marked as insulin by that time.

East Lancashire coroner Richard Taylor said he had read in statements, submitted to the inquest, that Mr Raeburn, before his death, was not in good health.

He thought it was a ‘good idea’ to take some steroids, to enable him to visit his local post office, added Mr Taylor.

Home Office pathologist Dr Philip Lumb said the deceased was a chronic alcoholic and it was difficult to establish whether a seizure or the insulin injection had killed him. But on balance he believed the effects of the insulin dose could not be discounted.

Recording an accident verdict, coroner Mr Taylor said: “He would have had no idea, taking this insulin, believing it to be steroids, that it would result in his death.”