A young man was tragically found dead at home by his parents following a drug overdose, an inquest heard.

Parents of Jack Root broke into the annexe he was living in at the bottom of their garden via a window.

They found him sitting on the sofa, unresponsive.

Paramedics were called but Mr Root, 22, was confirmed dead.

The inquest heard a post mortem examination showed he had died as a result of toxic levels of fentanyl.

Coroner Caroline Beasley Murray said Mr Root’s family had gone to extraordinary lengths to help their son who had mental health and drugs problems.

She said: “There is absolutely no doubt of the lengths you went to in order to care for him and support him. It is absolutely evident.

“I see photographs of where people have died and they are ghastly.

"But Jack was really cared for and it’s clear you encouraged him to reach out to mental health services and have counselling.”

The inquest heard Mr Root, of Halstead, had suffered from two previous drug overdoses and his family had been keeping a close eye on him to support him.

However, in recent months Mr Root had been seeing a counsellor and his mum said he had been showing signs of improvement.

Mrs Root, who was present at the inquest, said: “If we were in this situation two months before I would have thought there was no way.

“We were always checking up on him and never left him alone and when he started showing signs of improvement I felt we were starting to move on.

“We really don’t believe Jack tried to take his own life because we were slowly moving forward. He was looking forward to meeting his new counsellor.”

Mrs Beasley Murray said she had considered verdicts of suicide and accidental death but did not have enough evidence for either. She recorded an open verdict.