A CROSS Hills man who was found dead at his home by his wife when she returned from work had a very high concentration of alcohol in his blood, an inquest was told.
Shakeel Amar Pitteea, 28, of Main Street, had taken to drinking heavily when his wife, Sherry-Anne Pitteea, was out of the house, the inquest at Skipton Magistrates' Court heard.
She had returned from work at a residential home at about 9.30pm on May 5 to find him collapsed on the sofa. She had tried to resuscitate him using first aid techniques learned from her work but was unable to do so, the hearing was told.
In a statement to the hearing, Mrs Pitteea said that her husband, whom she had married in 2013, had gradually developed a serious alcohol problem which she and his family had tried to help him overcome.
Coroner Rob Turnbull said that Mr Pitteea had died from alcohol toxicity. He told Mrs Pitteea that she had done her very best to stop her husband drinking but that he "appeared to have been on a course of self-destruction".
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