A man once awarded nearly £45,000 in damages after being unlawfully detained by the government for five months, was found dead in an alleyway, an inquest has heard.
An office worker in Southport was alerted to the tragedy after his dog started paying unusual attention to a fire escape door on December 23, 2018.
The man went to investigate on Anchor Street and the body of Henry Sadlowski was discovered in the alleyway, coroner's officer Howard Albert-Murphy said.
Mr Sadlowski was 38, and came from Poland, where his next of kin live.
The death was not suspicious, although he had an injury to his face which was possibly a result of an assault or a fall, Bootle Coroner's Court heard.
That was not connected to his death, it was added.
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Mr Sadlowski was a heroin user, it was said, and a needle and syringe was found next to him.
It was previously reported how Mr Sadlowski and his partner were once unlawfully held for 154 days after they were found sleeping rough in Lancashire.
The couple were detained with a view to deporting them as part of Operation Gopik - a national policy to deport European Economic Area (EEA) nationals found sleeping rough in the UK.
However, the Home Office later admitted the pair had been unlawfully detained after a High Court ruling in a separate case in December 2017 said that the policy was unlawful.
Mr Sadlowski and his girlfriend were first detained in March 2017 and initially sent to different immigration removal centres.
In her witness statement, she described being "absolutely terrified" in the four weeks she was held in a separate centre to Mr Sadlowski, saying: "I was so scared. The banging of the doors and the shouts of those detained, I was suicidal."
Mr Sadlowski said in his witness statement that a detention officer told him they could "crush" his girlfriend if they wanted to, adding: "When I asked about my partner... I was told it was none of my business."
Mr Howard-Murphy said he was born in Nowogrod, Poland, but his last address was Wright Street in Southport.
A cause of death of heroin toxicity, prosthetic tricuspid valve bacterial endocarditis with septic pulmonary emboli, with pulmonary infarction, and intravenous drug use was recorded.
Coroner Julie Goulding recorded a conclusion of a drug-related death.
