A MOTHER launched her own investigation to find the truth behind her son’s sudden death, an inquest heard.

Pauline Lord spoke to people from the “drugs community”

and even delivered one man to Salford Police Station, where he was interviewed under caution by officers investigating her son’s death.

Dean Gary Lord died in hospital in May last year, aged 34, from the combined effects of heroin and alcohol, five days after he injected the drug for the first time, Bolton Coroners Court was told. Mrs Lord believes her son could not have injected the drug himself and, recording an open verdict, Bolton’s assistant deputy coroner, Peter Watson, said there was not enough evidence to say who had injected the heroin.

She told the inquest: “He never used drugs.

He was just a normal lad.”

The inquest heard Mr Lord, known as Gary, had issues with alcohol.

Mystery surrounds the former fork-lift truck driver’s death as the man he was with, in his flat in Graymar Road, Little Hulton, the night the heroin was injected, has also died.

Mark Rhodes, who also took heroin on May 12, told police under caution, he had instructed his friend, Mr Lord, how to inject the drug. Mr Rhodes died in October, 2010.

He also implicated another man, John Shelton, with the supply of needles.

Shelton, who was brought to the inquest from Wymott Prison where he is serving a sentence for an unrelated matter, told the court he had not been present when Mr Lord had taken the drug. Mr Lord collapsed almost immediately after the heroin entered his bloodstream, the inquest heard, and was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital.

He died after remaining in a coma for five days on May 17, 2010, from brain injury caused by alcohol and heroin toxicity.

The inquest heard he may have previously smoked heroin but had never injected.

Mr Watson said: “Just as it has been difficult for Mrs Lord and for the police to ascertain where the truth lies, it is also difficult for me to see the truth.”

Police confirmed they have now closed the case.