The decomposed body of a convicted murderer was found slumped over his coffee table after taking a fatal heroin overdose, a court has heard.

Concern for the welfare of Mark Taylor, 51, was raised on September 13 last year after he failed to attend a regular meeting with probation having been released from prison on life license in 2012.

Police were then called to his house in Linden Road, Coxheath, Maidstone where officers discovered his body over the table, with his trousers around his ankles, surrounded by drug paraphernalia.

An empty syringe was found in his right hand, while there was also a pipe, a razor blade, a burnt spoon, two lighters and wraps of white powder in the room, as well as energy drinks and an opened bottle of vodka.

Detective sergeant Steve Smith told an inquest at Sessions House the body of Mr Taylor, originally from Newcastle, was "visibly decomposed" and that he may have been dead for several days, with the last call from his mobile being made to a number linked to drug dealing on September 5.

The inquest heard how Mr Taylor, who moved to Kent in 2017, had a history of alcohol abuse and intravenous drug addiction, but had claimed to be "clean" for 15 years.

He also suffered from depression and was at one stage considering taking his own life, though crisis teams who assessed him in April concluded he was no longer suicidal.

DS Smith told the court there was nothing found at the house to suggest he had tried to take his own life on this occasion.

"There is nothing to suggest he was intending to take his own life by taking an overdose" - Katrina Hepburn

A post-mortem found the cause of death to be a pulmonary abscess in the left lung and a pulmonary edema in the right lung, due to a drug overdose.

Assistant coroner Katrina Hepburn rejected suicide and recorded a verdict of drug related death.

"I am satisfied there is nothing to suggest he was intending to take his own life by taking an overdose of heroin," she said.

"There may have been a long period of abstinence and when he started again, the dosage he was previously accustomed to, which he had build up a tolerance to, was lost.

"We have heard in evidence that tolerance is lost when regular use of a drug is stopped.

"When he took them on or around September 5, he couldn't cope with the level of substance in his system and that is what caused his death."

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