Loner killed by chronic alcoholism

David Trevor Bawden, a divorced man, lived on vodka and cola and made little attempt to look after himself, a neighbour told a Doncaster inquest.

He wore the same clothes all the time and was in an unkempt condition when neighbour Andrew Case discovered his body in a bedroom at his terraced house in Beaconsfield Road, Hexthorpe, last June.

The 51-year-old warehouseman was said to have had no friends and did not maintain contact with his family. In a statement to the court Mr Case said: “He didn’t live healthily, I don’t think he washed or took a bath and wore the same clothes.

“He never ate anything and only drank cola or vodka. It was not uncommon for him to have two bottles of vodka a day.”

On the evening before he died Mr Case saw Mr Bawden drink three cups of vodka and cola before going to bed.

The next morning Mr Case went up to his room and found his body lying on the bed.

A blood sample showed an alcohol level almost one-and-a-half times the driving limit and tests for drugs were negative.

The autopsy report by Dr Anju Verghese described Mr Bawden as “thin and unkempt” and the examination showed his liver was enlarged and fatty, consistent with chronic alcoholism.

Dr Verghese gave the cause of death as sudden unexpected death due to chronic alcoholism.

The Coroner, Stanley Hooper, said Mr Bawden lived a “thoroughly unhappy lifestyle, neither washing or eating properly.”

He recorded a narrative verdict that Mr Bawden died at his home unexpectedly of chronic alcoholism.