A dad-of-two died at home after mixing strong prescription painkillers with alcohol and illegal drugs, an inquest has heard.
Police found Gary Shimmin, 48, collapsed in the living room of his house in Baker Street, Wigan, on April 23 last year, following a concern for welfare call made by his sister Stephanie Wilson.
In an inquest at Bolton Coroner's Court last Wednesday (March 24), Mrs Wilson confirmed that Mr Shimmin was born in Barrow-in-Furness and had worked as an electrician, as well as on oil rigs.
Mrs Wilson described her brother as a "very hard-working man" and "very bright", with interests including go karts, motorbikes, and microlights.
He also had two children - Bradley and Georgia - with his wife Melanie, who he loved spending time with when he had free time.
After 25 years together, Mr Shimmin's marriage broke down and after an "amicable" break-up, the situation eventually became "horrendous", according to Mrs Wilson.
Melanie started a new relationship and Mr Shimmin was eventually stopped from having contact with the children, the court heard.
Reading a statement written by Mrs Wilson, area coroner Alan Walsh told the court: "He realised he'd made mistakes in his life and that was something that troubled him but he was devastated."
Mrs Wilson admitted that her brother was a heavy drinker and took cocaine, which she believed he took due to "loneliness" and as a "release from pain".
Mr Shimmin also suffered from a number of health conditions, including mastoiditis, arthritis, low blood pressure, tinnitus, and vertigo.
According to his doctor, Majid Hussain, Mr Shimmin was prescribed a plethora of painkillers for the problems, including morphine tablets.
Mrs Wilson told the court that she believed her brother would often take more than the prescribed dose, in order to help relieve the pain.
In June 2019, Mr Shimmin was released from prison, after serving a sentence for an offence which Dr Walsh described as "a domestic problem relating to his wife's new partner".
While in prison, he wrote a suicide note, which Mrs Wilson found when she went through his personal effects, following his death.
Following his release from jail, Mr Shimmin was referred to mental health services and had several sessions with Natalie Marland, the senior nurse practitioner at Atherleigh Park in Leigh.
Miss Marland said that he had suicidal thoughts but had told her he would not take his own life, due to his children.
Mr Shimmin was then referred to the Think Well-Being service for cognitive behavioural therapy but was discharged in early 2020, after expressing that he would respond better to counselling.
Mrs Wilson said that she spoke to her brother for the last time on April 19 and described him as being "down".
She told the court: "He always was down and fed up because he wasn't seeing his children. He'd been fighting for a couple of years and was waiting for something to go to court.
"He was very unwell. He had a lot of problems and was waiting for surgery.
"He was low. He was depressed."
On April 23, Mrs Wilson called the police after Mr Shimmin's friend Scott Heyden contacted her, worried that he had not responded to his messages.
PC Carl Beck was one of the police officers who attended at Mr Shimmin's home and he told the court that other than medication that had been separated into a daily sections of a blister pack, no other drug paraphernalia was found at the house.
Dr Walsh raised concern that a special procedure investigation was not triggered and suggested that police officers should have more training in recognising signs of a drug-related death.
Pathologist David Barker recorded a cause of death of 'combined drug toxicity', following a post-mortem. Forensic toxicologist Julie Evans confirmed that Mr Shimmin had morphine, cocaine, cannabis, and alcohol in his system, at the time of this death.
Ruling out suicide and recording a conclusion of drug-related death, Dr Walsh said: "He was a man who worked extremely hard in his early years. I am satisfied that he worked hard to support his family and had everything he could wish for.
"He then had the break down of his relationship, which was probably due to his mistakes in life and that led to a pattern of behaviour which was certainly uncharacteristic.
"I have the picture of a man suffering severe pain, who saw his life having been destroyed, maybe initially by his own actions, and he was devastated by the changes.
"At the time of his death, there was washing in the washing machine, he'd bought an exercise bike, he bought a motorbike and he was planning for the future rather than the end of his life.
"He told the mental health services that he would not have left his children and that he would not have ended his life because he would not have wanted his children to know that he ended his life.
"I accept that he is likely to have taken too much medication, drank too much alcohol and taken illicit drugs. All those matters came together to lead to his death by combined drug toxicity."
