A 63-YEAR-OLD grandfather from Latchford died of a heart attack after overdosing on the dance drug ecstasy - combining it with a lethal cocktail of alcohol and other class A drugs.

Eric Whittle died in hospital three days after he was discovered, unconscious and convulsing at his Cumberland Street home, by a friend.

His grandson, Stephen Whittle, told the inquest how Whittle, a heavy drinker, was separated from his wife and lived alone but 'kept an open house'.

He said: "I visited him regularly but he was nearly always drunk.

"I know he smoked marijuana and I had been told that he had taken ecstasy. People would come and go to his house to drink."

He told how his grandfather would boast about how many ecstasy tablets he had taken and explained that it wouldn't have been difficult for him to acquire the drug.

Mr Whittle called in on his grandfather on the evening he was found.

He said: "I fell asleep. He had been drinking when I got there but I don't think he had taken anything.

"I woke up about 3.30am and he was still drinking. I had a few with him and then went home.

"The next time I saw him he was unconscious in hospital."

Clemente Porrino, a friend of Whittle, told how he had visited him in the early hours of that morning and found him unconscious and convulsing on the floor while another friend sat asleep in a chair.

He said: "I put him in the recovery position, he was hardly breathing.

"He came round but he couldn't get a grasp of what was going on."

Questioned as to whether he had ever given Whittle any drugs or whether he knew anything about him taking ecstasy, Mr Porrino answered "no".

On admission to hospital, traces of cocaine, cannabis, alcohol and amphetamines were found in Mr Whittle's blood.

Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg recorded a verdict of death from non-dependant abuse of drugs.