A homeless man who was found dead in a shop doorway on Christmas Eve had taken heroin, it has been revealed.

Michael McCluskey, 43, was discovered by a passer-by in Chatham High Street.

An inquest into his death opened at the Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone this week.

The hearing was told Mr McCluskey had been sleeping in an empty shop doorway next to Poundland and The Central Theatre.

A passer-by spotted him and tried to wake him up, but realised he had died.

Mr McCluskey was known to many of the volunteers who work with the homeless in Medway.

Neil Charlick, from the volunteer group Medway Street Angels, said: "I'd seen him the night before, I bought him McDonald's and we sat together laughing and joking.

"He was a nice lad and we used to talk all the time as he was a West Ham fan same as me, we had a connection because of football so we had something to talk about."

Mr Charlick, who helped police identify Mr McCluskey, said he had known him for around six weeks.

He added: "He’d just come back down from Manchester to build bridges with his daughter."

The court heard a post-mortem examination had revealed his cause of death to be "heroin toxicity".

A full inquest into Mr McCluskey’s death will be held on Wednesday, April 5.