A “FUNNY, warm and engaging” man hanged himself following a 30-year battle with drug addiction.

Graham Hibbert, 48, was found by his landlord in his Chorley Old Road flat, on January 3.

Mr Hibbert had been to visit his mother at around 2.30pm on the day prior to his death and helped his step-father with a DIY job, an inquest at Bolton Coroner’s Court heard.

When he returned home later that evening, there had been a fire in one of the ground floor flats in his block and the building had been evacuated.

His sister Alison Hibbert said he then visited her partner’s flat at around 11pm and seemed distressed about the fire.

He told her that a board had been ripped off his window and he would be freezing.

Miss Hibbert told her brother that he could stay with her for the night but he declined. He then told her he was going to kill himself.

But she said she did not believe him as he said similar things quite regularly.

The next day, Mr Hibbert’s landlord Philip Dean visited the flat to give him a new door key.

He knocked on the door a few times but after no reply, he let himself in and found Mr Hibbert hanged.

A post-mortem revealed that there also were low levels of alcohol, morphine, cocaine, diazepam and methadone in his system at the time.

Police retrieved a notepad from the flat, filled with a number of notes written by Mr Hibbert, including one that read: “My head is everywhere. I feel suicidal everyday.”

However most of the notes were described as ‘ramblings’.

Mr Hibbert had been known to mental health services for around 25 years.

The court heard that 30 years ago, he was injured after jumping from a bridge. There were also other instances of self-harm including cutting his throat, taking deliberate overdoses and setting fire to his own flat.

He had also been visiting Achieve recovery services since at least 2010.

Lindsay Price, Mr Hibbert’s key worker from Achieve, described him as: “A warm, funny, engaging individual who will be sadly missed.”

Margaret Ball, Mr Hibbert’s mother also described him as “very kind-hearted and caring”.

Recording the cause of death as hanging, Alan Walsh, Acting Senior Coroner for Manchester West said: “Graham Hibbert has been taking drugs since his teenage years.

“He had the total support of his family. They could not have done more.

“He had the support of the mental health service and Achieve. Appointments were made for him but people who use drugs have a chaotic style of life so he didn’t attend on occasion.

“He was clearly disturbed by the fire. His sister asked him to stay with her but he wouldn’t. He told his sister what he was going to do and she quite understandably didn’t believe it because he’d said it on multiple occasions.

“I’m satisfied by virtue of what he said to his sister, what he did, and the relatively low level of drugs that he did make the decision to end his life. I reach the conclusion of suicide.”