Acquitted man's lethal cocktail.

Byline: By Tom Mullen

A man found dead after being acquitted of knifing a father to death and stabbing his son binged on a lethal cocktail of drink and drugs.

Tony Hedley was found slumped in bed in Charlotte Close, Elswick, Newcastle, by his girlfriend after spending the evening taking a mixture of Valium, lager, and heroin, an inquest heard.

Kelly Traynor, of Durham City, told how they would regularly drink and takes drugs together in Mr Hedley's bedroom.

Mr Hedley, 23, died on December 6 last year, four months after he was acquitted at Newcastle Crown Court of murder, manslaughter and wounding with intent.

It had been claimed he fatally stabbed lorry driver Lawrence Steel eight times and knifed his son Craig Steel, 23, after an argument in a Gateshead pub. Mr Hedley had claimed self defence after admitting fighting with the pair.

Mr Steel died after suffering massive blood loss after one of the wounds severed an artery in his neck, and Craig suffered four stab wounds, near their home in Aycliffe Crescent, Wrekenton.

The Newcastle inquest heard how Mr Hedley, a regular drug-user, died at his home.

In a statement Miss Traynor told how they had both taken Valium and Mr Hedley was drinking lager.

She said: "We got under the duvet and watched TV. I woke up and Tony looked a funny colour and didn't look right. I panicked and screamed out."

She said she tried to resuscitate Mr Hedley with the help of his brother, Ricky, who was also in the house at the time, but he was pronounced dead after ambulances arrived.

A post mortem found traces of morphine in Mr Hedley's body, consistent with heroin use.

In a statement read to the inquest, Miss Traynor said Mr Hedley could, and would, take up to 10 Valium tablets in one go and drink lager at the same time.

Mr Hedley was known to have been to a drug rehabilitation centre in the past, the inquest heard. A consultant pathologist at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary confirmed that the body turns heroin into morphine.

Coroner David Mitford, recording a verdict of death through drug abuse, said: "Because of the combination of drugs he had taken he was in a vulnerable situation. Morphine was instrumental in causing his death.