AN INQUEST in northern England has heard that an electrician who was intoxicated on ‘legal highs’ died of acute alcohol poisoning after downing a pint of vodka in four seconds.

The 29-year-old was out with friends on a Friday night in January when, at the end of the night, he ordered a pint of the spirit and downed the entire glass in one go – containing the alcoholic equivalent of thirteen pints of beer – shaking off the intervention of friends who tried to stop him.

Having been brought home by a friend to try and sleep off the effects, Richard Davies fell into a coma from which he never awoke. He was found in a pool of his own blood.

The coroners court in Teeside heard a statement from Davies’ best friend in which he said they had been drinking at a friend’s house when he decided to bring Davies to his stepfather’s house nearby.

The stepfather found Davies unconscious and not breathing on the Saturday afternoon at about 4:30pm, at which point medics were unable to do anything to assist him.

The Sun reports that the deputy coroner ruled that the level of alcohol in Davies’ system had killed him, and that the level of mephedrone in his body was not a contributing factor.

His sister Clare told reporters outside the hearing that the family was “just so shocked” when it had heard of Richard’s death.

“We couldn’t believe it – we still can’t. Richard was not an alcoholic and just liked going out on a weekend – like most young lads.

“So many people do what he does and more young people need to be aware of the dangers, especially children who drink on the street. You just never think that it can kill, but what has happened to Richard is proof that it does.”

Mephedrone – or “meow meow” – has since been outlawed in the UK and Ireland.

In a separate incident, a separate inquest heard that Richard Straight, 20, died when he fell off a cliff into the sea after downing cheap vodka and energy drinks in at a nightclub in Portsmouth.