A 23-year-old man died after one of his friends injected him with a lethal cocktail of heroin and ketamine.

On March 11, 2018, Alex Brooks invited his friend Sam Caloe to his house in Crompton Way, where he lived with his mother, his friend and another man.

Mr Brooks had been suffering with discomfort in his thigh and asked Caloe, 27, to bring him the drugs to relieve his pain, an inquest at Bolton Coroner's Court heard.

Adam 'Wiggo' Wigglesworth was in Mr Brooks' bedroom with both men when the incident happened.

Mr Wigglesworth said that shortly after arriving, Caloe started to take paraphernalia out and prepare the drugs for administration.

He claimed he then witnessed Caloe give Mr Brooks 'the first shot' of the mixture, which consisted of heroin and ketamine.

Eventually, Mr Brooks came back round and said that while the pain had gone, he had not felt the effects of the ketamine, so Caloe prepared another dose.

Mr Wigglesworth said he did not pay attention to whether Caloe injected this one himself as he "didn't want to know".

A short amount of time later, Mr Wigglesworth said that Mr Brooks seemed very quiet so he checked on him and saw that he had gone very pale and his lips had turned blue.

Caloe then tried to give first aid to Mr Brooks while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

Mr Brooks died in Royal Bolton Hospital four days later.

The medical causes of death were recorded as hypoxic brain injury, respiratory arrest, and multiple drug toxicity, by Rachel Galloway, assistant coroner for Greater Manchester West.

A number of Caloe and Mr Brooks' mutual friends claimed Caloe told them in the days following the death that he had administered both injections to Mr Brooks.

Caloe was arrested and interviewed by police on March 21, 2018. He admitting preparing the drugs but told police that Mr Brooks self-injected on both occasions.

Caloe was found dead at his Horwich flat on October 29, 2018, following a drug overdose.

DS Lunt, of Greater Manchester Police confirmed that the Crown Prosecution Service was likely to charge Caloe with manslaughter, had he not died himself.

Mr Brooks' mother, Michelle Powers told the inquest that she could not imagine her son self-injecting the drugs, as he was terrified of injections and had even passed out when having his blood taken in the past.

Ms Galloway said that to record a conclusion of unlawful killing, she had to be satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt of three factors; that the act committed by the third party was an unlawful act, that it was a dangerous act, and that the act was the cause of death.

Recording her conclusion, Ms Galloway said: "The appropriate conclusion is one of unlawful killing.

"I am satisfied so that I am sure, that on March 11, 2018, Alex Brooks was intentionally injected with two doses of heroin and ketamine, at his home address by the third party.

"I'd like to offer my own condolences to the family and friends."