Heroin overdose lead to Eastbourne man’s death

An inquest at Eastbourne Town Hall on Thursday (March 11) heard Robert Pordage had a long history of drug misuse.

He died at his flat in Etchingham Road on September 1 last year.

A toxicology report showed Mr Pordage had taken a number of drugs but his cause of death was down to a fatal dose of heroin.

Mr Pordage’s girlfriend Janine Fontaine-Lyons said the couple had first met when they were on a maths course in 2012 and had rekindled their relationship last year.

She said, “He was very popular. He was a lovely and sensitive soul but he just had issues. I feel the system let him down.”

East Sussex coroner Alan Craze said he did not believe Mr Pordage had intended to take his own life and recorded that death was due to drug dependency.