A Camelford builder drank himself to death after socialising with two friends, a Truro inquest has been told.

Father-of-two Ian Kitto had been in ‘good spirits’ and ‘laughing and joking’ when he suddenly stumbled and fell in a farmyard late one night in January 2023.

Ian, aged 43, collapsed in thick mud on the ground in the farmyard at Washaway, Bodmin, Cornwall.

His friends tried to save him with chest compressions and an emergency ambulance was called but he suffered a heart attack on the way to hospital in Truro and died.

The inquest at Cornwall Coroner’s Court heard his blood alcohol reading was 371 mg - the legal top limit for driving is just 80 mg, so Ian was nearly five times that limit.

The assistant coroner for Cornwall Emma Hillson said Ian died from ‘acute alcohol intoxication’ and said people with 300mg blood alcohol levels have died.

Ian’s wife Donna said they had been together for 27 years and told the coroner:”Ian always liked a drink.”

She said he started drinking when he was just 14 when his father died and Ian would go out every other night downing between eight and ten pints and some shots.

Donna said he rang her at 8pm that night and he was in ‘good spirits’ and then at 2am his friends called to say he had collapsed after ‘laughing and joking’ with them.

Donna said of his drinking:”He never thought it was a problem.”

His friends did not respond to give statements to the inquest.

Miss Hillson recorded an alcohol related death conclusion saying Ian, of Camelford, had ‘a high level of alcohol consumption known to cause fatalities’.