AN Upper Gornal man was found dead five days after he was reported missing, an inquest heard.

Robert Howell of Greenhill Road, was last seen in the early hours of February 15.

An inquest at Black Country Coroners Court, sitting in Oldbury, on Wednesday (April 25), heard that before he went missing, Mr Howell - who had a history of drug use - had an argument with his girlfriend and had told her he was going to kill himself.

The 37-year-old was then found face down in a brook near to the allotment off Rosemary Crescent in Woodsetton by a member of the public on February 20.

Senior coroner Zafar Siddique said that the top half of Mr Howell's clothing was missing and his trousers were down by his ankles but investigating officers had found no evidence of foul play and concluded there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

A post-mortem revealed that Mr Howell had a number of drugs in his system - including traces of cocaine, morphine, buprenorphine and quetiapine and concluded that the cause of death was a heroin/morphine toxicity.

Mr Siddique said that as Mr Howell had a history of taking illicit drugs, including heroin, he may have built up a tolerance.

"It appears he had some sort of argument and made comments about killing himself - but the levels in his system were not excessive.

"They were high but not the highest I have seen and if he was taking drugs regularly then his tolerance could be quite high.

"The combination of drugs together can be toxic. He did have some issues with drugs but his family tell me he was making progress and was having treatment on and off and taking a heroin substitute."

Mr Siddique said he didn't think there was sufficient evidence to suggest that Mr Howell intended to take his own life and recorded a drug related death.