A St Dogmaels man drank 120 mililitres of methadone and went missing following the breakdown of his relationship, HM Coroner for Pembrokeshire, Mark Layton, heard yesterday (Thursday).

Michael Brown, aged 49, had rekindled a relationship with ex girlfriend Helen Proven, following a chance meeting in Cardigan High Street in 2007.

The couple had had a five year relationship 25 years ago, when this ended Mr Brown took an overdose. They did not see each other again until bumping into each other in Cardigan High Street.

In 2008 the couple bought a house in St Dogmaels. This put a strain on the relationship and in December of that year police were called to an incident at the house. Shortly after this Mr Brown took another overdose.

The couple got back together briefly in 2009 but broke up again due to Mr Brown's heavy drinking and the fact he was not taking prescribed anti depressants.

He moved out of St Dogmaels at the end of July and went to live in a friend's flat in Cardigan.

He still saw Miss Proven and in August had spoken to her about taking methadone, saying he could steal some and asking her what he thought it would do to him.

On August 21st two bottles of methadone were left in the Cardigan flat by a friend who had them on prescription.

At 3.35pm the same day Mr Brown sent Miss Proven a text message which panicked her. When she came home from work she found Mr Brown outside her house with a bottle of red wine.

They opened the wine, then Mr Brown pulled a bottle of methadone out of his fleece pocket and drank it. He took a glass and the bottle of wine, headed towards the 150 yard long back garden and disappeared.

Police and paramedics arrived at the property and began to search for Mr Brown. Paramedics could not identify the empty bottle as methadone, as the label had been ripped off.

During the search that followed Miss Proven received texts from Mr Brown. Temporary police sergeant Dale Scriven also managed to speak to him twice on his mobile phone.

He said he had drunk vodka, wine and 120ml of methadone. On both occasions he refused to disclose his location.

A police dog team, mobile phone tracking, vehicle identification and extensive enquiries were all used in the search for Mr Brown. On August 23rd police found his body in a neighbour's shed.

A post mortem revealed a low concentration of alcohol in Mr Brown's blood but a fatally high concentration of methadone.

The coroner concluded that Mr Brown died from self-administered drug poisoning.