AN INQUEST into the death of a 28-year-old man who died after taking a lethal cocktail of alcohol and heroin was halted because of questions over the evidence of the two men who were with him at the time of his death.

Mark Shorrock, of the Cherry Trees guest house, Islington, Blackburn, died after injecting himself with heroin following an all day drinking session.

The inquest heard extracts from police interviews with John Smith and Kevin Buckley, who both lived at the same address and had shared a £10 bag of heroin that Mr Shorrock had bought on the day of his death.

Mr Smith said he had a heroin habit which he could control and that he had warned Mark a few weeks before his death, to be careful about taking heroin with drink.

Kevin Buckley said he and Mr Shorrock had been drinking cider all day when Mark had said he "wanted some brown."

Mr Smith said Mr Shorrock had prepared the heroin and he had injected himself before injecting Kevin Buckley, who could not inject himself. He said he could not see how much Mr Shorrock had injected because he kept it covered.

Mr Buckley said in his interview that if he had taken as much heroin as Mr Shorrock he would be dead as well.

The inquest heard that no formal statements had been taken from the two men and Mrs June Evans, of Duchess Street, Lower Darwen, the dead man's mother, said she could not accept what they had said in interview.

She said she knew for a fact that her son was not with Mr Buckley all day because she had spoken to someone else who was with him.

Coroner Andre Rebello said there was insufficient information available and asked the police to interview Mr Smith and Mr Buckley as well as the person mentioned by Mrs Evans.

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