Downham Market man Julius Taylor was found dead in home with drugs in his system, inquest concludes

A man who was found dead in his home in Downham last December was an alcoholic who lived in “a state of chaos”, an inquest has heard.

Julius Taylor was found dead inside his property at St Winnold Close on December 18, Norfolk Coroner’s Court was told on Monday.

His cause of death was identified as respiratory depression caused by a number of drugs found in his system.

The 61-year-old was found by his neighbour, who would regularly visit him to give him food.

Emergency services were called to the scene where he was pronounced dead. Police said that it was clear that Mr Taylor had died “quite some time ago”.

The inquest heard that Mr Taylor was an alcoholic for many years and had visited A&E at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital 26 times in a 12-month period.

Mr Taylor lived alone at the property and was under the supervision of social workers who described him as having “historical self-neglect.”

Mr Taylor’s social worker Jonathan Chapman said in a statement that he would often visit the property in Downham and it would be untidy and that conditions were “cluttered and unhygienic”.

His home was professionally cleaned twice in 2022, but it soon would return to its prior state.

The inquest heard that Mr Taylor would often not pay his electricity bill and would “sit in the dark and drink”.

He was offered support through a number of services including Change, Grow, Live (CGL), but didn’t attend appointments so was dismissed.

It was said that Mr Taylor was offered help with his finances due to his memory problems and that he would often visit the library and town hall in Downham to keep warm during winter months.

His social worker described Mr Taylor’s death as “unexpected”.

A statement was read in the coroner's court from Mr Taylor’s eldest son, who said he had not seen his father since 2010, but spoke to him on the phone in April 2020.

He said that his father suffered from alcoholism for “as long as he could remember”.

His GP at the Hollies Surgery in Downham added that Mr Taylor had been dependent on alcohol since 2004 and that he would often visit the surgery with mental health-related problems as well as chest pains.

PC William Parker, who was called after Mr Taylor’s body was found, said that a number of beer cans and empty bottles were found on the floor of his home and the officer was aware of Mr Taylor due to his alcohol dependency.

It was reported that Mr Taylor was drinking around 14 units of alcohol a day and tried to abruptly stop drinking.

In a post-mortem report, it was found that Mr Taylor had a number of painkillers and other medicinal drugs in his system.

His cause of death was identified to be respiratory depression caused by multiple drug toxicity.

Area coroner for Norfolk Yvonne Blake said: “I now know this gentleman was an alcoholic for many years.

“He had other ailments and was offered an enormous amount of help by a dedicated social worker and was given assistance with his finances.

“He lived in a state of chaos and was unwilling to change this although he was pleasant and compliant in hospital, he didn’t attend later appointments.”

Ms Blake concluded that Mr Taylor’s death was drug-related.