Diabetic died after 12-hour drinking session

9:10am Friday 4th July 2008

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A DIABETIC man died after a 12-hour drinking session to celebrate his 47th birthday, an inquest heard on Monday.

William Seales, known to his friends as Little Bill and to his family as Will, died from acute alcohol toxicity and diabetic coma and had more than five times the legal limit of alcohol in his bloodstream.

The inquest, held in Trowbridge Town Hall, heard how a friend found him dead the following morning, on November 22 last year, at his home in Broughton Road, Melksham, after becoming concerned when he did not answer his phone all morning.

David Porter, of Stratton's Walk, told the inquest he had gone to celebrate Mr Seales birthday with him at The Grapes pub in Bank Street after work on November 21.

Mr Seales told him he had been in the pub since he finished his night shift at Cooper Tires in Bath Road at 6.30am.

He continued drinking lager and shorts with Mr Porter until 6pm when he fell over and Mr Porter decided to take him home.

He said: "I put him to bed and left him on his side and put his telephone and insulin by him so when he got up he could get his fix, then I went home."

When he went back the following day he found Mr Seales on the floor in his bedroom curled up in a ball and called an ambulance.

In a statement read out from Mr Seales GP, the court heard he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1975 but it was poorly controlled. He was also a heavy smoker and regularly drank up to 50 units of alcohol a week.

Wiltshire coroner David Masters said: "He had been out drinking from 6am to 6pm, nearly 12 hours, and there was a substantial excess of alcohol on board.

"It is quite likely he hadn't injected himself that day.

"It is probably doubtful that he had woken up, he just went into a coma and would have known no more about it, and died."

After the hearing, members of Mr Seales family paid tribute to him, describing him as "a caring and unassuming man".

His ex-wife Julie Seales said: "He was an adorable man and a good dad and we miss him terribly."

Mr Seales leaves two daughters, Sarah, 23, and 14-year-old Victoria.

Victoria said: "He was a great dad and he made sure I never went without."

Verdict: misadventure