A man died after becoming wedged between the wardrobe and bed in his home, an inquest has heard.

Stephen James McNally's family thought he was having a lie in at his home in Flint, North Wales.

But the 66-year-old retired HGV driver was found dead by his partner after becomming wedged between a fitted wardrobe and his bed.

An inquest held at Ruthin, North Wales heard McNally had started drinking heavily at the start of the pandemic to cope with his declining mental health, with partner Janette Hewitt saying he had began suffering from depression.

She said that McNally had also stopped enjoying things he once liked to do in the months leading up to his death.

On the night of his death on November 15 last year, Hewitt says that McNally had drunk a bottle of wine in the evening and had done so regularly since the beginning of the pandemic but "seemed fine in himself".

Later that evening, the couple, who slept in separate bedrooms due to Hewitt's health, wished each other goodnight and went to bed.

It was not until the next morning that Hewitt, who believed her partner was having a lie-in, went to check on McNally where she found him at around 11:55am, NorthWalesLive reports.

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She found her partner wedged between a fitted wardrobe and the bed, with his chin pushed down into his chest.

Paying tribute to her partner of two decades, Ms Hewitt said: "Stephen loved my grandchildren. He is deeply missed by all of us and his memory will be treasured always."

Reviewing the evidence, John Gittins, coroner for North Wales east and central. said images captured on police bodycams show McNally's head slumped forward in an "unnatural position".

A postmortem concluded McNally's blood-alcohol level was almost three times more than the legal drink-driving limit.

The cause of death was attributed as alcohol-related postural asphyxia, with the coroner concluding that McNally's death was alcohol-related.

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