A MOTHER told an inquest that her heroin-taking son may have died as a result of the adult version of cot death syndrome.

But a senior Home Office pathologist said sleep apnoea syndrome would not have killed Jason Paul Faulkner, who he said was in a "downward spiral" of respiratory depression as a result of taking the drug.

Mr Faulkner, 19, of Bourne's Row, Hoghton, was found dead in the back of a car parked outside a house in Commercial Street, Oswaldtwistle, after taking heroin, the inquest was told. Police originally treated the death as suspicious and made numerous arrests.

Detective Chief Inspector Neil Smith, who headed the inquiry, read a summary of the findings that revealed Mr Faulkner, a man called Stewart Stansfield and his girlfriend, Leatrice Leonard, had been drinking at the Black Dog pub on the night of January 20. Miss Leonard and Mr Stansfield had argued and the two men had left in Stansfield's car.

He told police that after driving to Hoghton, where Faulkner borrowed £5 from his mum, they went to an address in Clayton Brook where Faulkner bought a bag of heroin, which they shared.

He said they returned to Commercial Street but he couldn't get in and he went to sleep in the car. He said Mr Faulkner was snoring in the back.

At 7.30am, Miss Leonard's brother came to the house and Stansfield gave him a lift to work in Whalley. Mr Faulkner was still asleep and he left him there when they returned to Oswaldtwistle and Mr Stansfield went into bed inside the house.

When he got up at 2.30pm he was concerned that Mr Faulkner was still in the car and went out to find him with blood coming from his nose and clearly dead.

Dr John Rutherford gave the cause of death as positional asphyxia and respiratory depression caused by opiate and alcohol toxicity. Coroner Michael Singleton recorded a verdict of misadventure.

The dead man's mother, Denise Sharples, said she believed her son had died somewhere else and had been put in the car before being driven to Oswaldtwistle. She said the apnoenic attacks her son had suffered since an early age -- when they were described as near miss cot death experiences -- were a carbon copy of the symptoms of heroin-induced respiratory depression, as described by Dr Rutherford.