A FATHER refused to go to hospital after taking a lethal cocktail of drugs and drink, an inquest heard.

Robert Young, 40, who was on medication for several conditions including diabetes, was only taken to Darent Valley Hospital by ambulance when he lost consciousness.

After arguing with his wife, Maria, on February 11, he spent the day drinking and went home alone.

Police were called shortly before 11pm after he told his wife, by phone, he had taken an overdose of sleeping pills and wanted to die.

When she arrived at their house, in Priory Close, Dartford, officers had climbed in through an open window.

Mrs Young told Gravesend Coroner's Court: “They wouldn't let me in because they said I would aggravate him.

“I think he would've been all right if he'd known I was there.”

Police Constable Stuart Brennan was with colleagues who tried for two hours to persuade Mr Young to go to hospital.

He said: “I asked him what his eight-year-old son, Bobby, who was asleep upstairs, would do if he died and he said, that's his problem'.”

When asked by Mrs Young why her husband was not told she was there, he added: “You pleaded with me not to disclose your whereabouts to him.”

Paramedic Paul Flower said Mr Young, a door man, had taken 80 to 100 Dothiepin tablets. Because of his size, 19st, it took a long time for their effects to show.

He added: “We were told this would be a lethal dose but Mr Young was adamant he wasn't going in and we could not force him.”

Consultant pathologist Dr Jerreat said it was impossible to say if he could have been saved if he had received treatment earlier.

Coroner Roger Hatch recorded a verdict that Mr Young took his own life.