Accident killed man in a drunken daze

Mar 13 2008 by Emma Davison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

AN ALCOHOLIC was killed by shards of broken glass which fell from a picture he knocked over while in a drunken daze.

The freak accident, which severed 55-year-old Anthony Stubbs’ neck, happened after he had spent the day drinking heavily with friends.

A Huddersfield inquest heard that Mr Stubbs, a long-term alcoholic, had stumbled down the stairs of his home after a night out drinking, knocking a picture off the wall as he fell.

The picture shattered and its pieces were embedded in Mr Stubbs’ neck, causing massive bleeding.

His wife discovered his body surrounded by a pool of blood after a loud crash awoke her from her sleep at their home in Holmfield Drive, Golcar.

The inquest heard that he had been drinking all day and night when he died on November 4.

His wife Pauline said in a statement that her husband had always been a heavy drinker, drinking “from the moment he got up to the time he went to bed”.

She said that her husband would often drink four litres of cider a day. She added: “He was a loveable rogue who spoiled himself with his alcoholism”.

She said that on the night he died, he got up at 10am, drank with his next door neighbour and then went to the pub. She said he returned at 2.30pm but went back out again that evening, returning at 11.30pm.

She described her unemployed husband as “staggering drunk and slurring his words” and that she waited until he went to bed to go to sleep herself at 12.45am.

She said: “I then heard him go to the toilet at the top of the stairs. I heard a crash and I found him lying at the bottom.

“There was a lot of blood, I ran round to the next door neighbour he told me to ring 999. I remember being covered in blood, he was doing mouth to mouth, there was no response.

“I can’t believe what’s happened, I can’t believe that he’s died in such a terrible way.”

A post-mortem examination revealed that Mr Stubbs’ death was caused by the deep gash, which severed some major vessels.

A toxicological examination revealed high blood alcohol levels, the equivalent of being two-and-a-half times over the legal driving limit.

Coroner Roger Whittaker recorded a verdict of accidental death.