A MASSIVE brain haemorrhage caused by taking cocaine killed a well-known businessman as he lay in bed at his home in Penryn, an inquest has heard.

Assistant coroner Barrie Van De Berg recorded a verdict of accidental death on 45-year-old David Millington after hearing how he was found dead in the bedroom of his home at Roskrow Manor, Roskrow, Penryn on June 8 last year.He was found by his daughter from a previous relationship, Sophie, who was living with him at the time. She told the inquest that the night before his death he had told her he was feeling rough and tired but had gone to work all day.The last time she had seen him was when he was showing her something on his computer before she went to bed at around 11pm leaving him in his office.In the morning she had got up at 8.30am to make some breakfast but became concerned when she couldn't rouse her father in his bedroom and ended up smashing a window to get in."I went up to his room at 9.15am and knocked on his door. I could not get a reply. After a while knocking I heard the phone ringing by his bed but there was no answer."I went back downstairs to ring Tanya his wife and then I broke one of the glass panels on the door and I was able to reach in and open the door."I found dad lying on his back on the bed covered in a duvet. I was very shocked and I ran out."The police were called and found lines of cocaine on a tile with an American Express credit card in his name stuck to it in the bedroom. They also found another tile with another line of cocaine in a draw and rolled up paper.Pathologist Dr Alison St John told the inquest death would have occurred several hours after Mr Millington had taken the drug."The cocaine was taken several hours before his death," she said. "There is an increased risk because of this and in my opinion this was the cause of death. This was a massive inter-cranial haemorrhage and there is a very close association between that and the use of cocaine."Mr Millington's GP Dr Stackpool from Westover Surgery, said that Mr Millington was suffering from a great deal of stress at the time and had separated from his wife Tanya. He was also having difficulty getting access to his son.Tanya Millington, his estranged wife, said over the last few years her husband had become a workaholic with very little time for socialising or relaxing.She said he was under a lot of stress because over the past few years his company had been involved in litigation with another company and it was causing a lot of problems."Because of the pressures of work David and I separated in March of that year but I always returned to help out with the business and look after our child," she said."After our seperation David began to relax and began laughing and became a better person. I was aware in the past that David had used cocaine but that was just for social purposes."Recording a verdict of accidental death Mr Van Der Berg expressed his sympathy to the family but said from the evidence there was definite link between taking cocaine and inter-cranial bleeding."Death follows exceptional excess use of drugs. He was taking a risk taking this drug. I would say Mr Millington was extremely unlucky after what happened."