Rushden man overdosed just a week after leaving prison, inquest hears

Richard Perkins, 47, was found in cardiac arrest in Finedon’s Station Road Cemetery on February 25 this year.

An inquest in Kettering yesterday (Thursday) heard how Mr Perkins was found surrounded by a number of tablets, beer cans and vodka.

A post-mortem examination found he had taken almost 10 times the therapeutic amount of anti-depressant amitriptyline which, mixed with the amount of kodeine and alcohol he had consumed, proved to be fatal.

Mr Perkins, who had suffered from the death his mother, had been released from prison just eight days earlier.

He was discovered in the area of graveyard where his baby son was buried.

In a statement, daughter Carrie said Mr Perkins was an amazing dad who was fighting his own demons.

Recording a verdict of suicide, assistant coroner Hassan Shah said: “I know he had some upheaval in his personal life.

“The level of amitriptyline was a lethal level. I believe he wished to take his own life.”