A SEEND man died from a broken neck after falling down a flight of stairs in his own home an inquest heard.

Richard Campbell, 61, fell down the stairs at his High Street home at about 1.45am on April 7, probably after getting up to go the toilet.

Mr Campbell had spent the evening at the Seend Social Club on Rusty Lane with his friend John Tilley, where he had a few pints of cider and some glasses of gin before walking home at 11.30pm.

His wife, Elizabeth, was woken just before 2am when she heard a loud noise.

She said: "I called out 'Richard is that you?' Because we are on a main road I thought a car had been bumped. There were no lights on."

When Mrs Campbell went to check what had happened she turned the lights on and saw her husband lying at the bottom of the stairs.

She called an ambulance and paramedics were on the scene minutes later. They tried to resuscitate Mr Campbell but were unable to do so.

The police were also called and they came to inspect the scene.

Mrs Campbell said her husband often went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and never turned the light on because he was familiar with his surroundings.

The coroner heard that Mr Campbell would have passed the top of the stairs on the way from his bedroom.

His wife said: "There was nothing for him to fall over. I just presume he lost his balance."

She told Mr Masters her husband had back problems but, although he had trouble bending, his walking was unaffected.

Coroner David Masters suggested Mr Campbell may have been a little off balance because he had just woken and had been drinking a few hours earlier.

Mr Campbell, who suffered from asthma and high blood pressure, worked part time in the Brewery Inn and did a paper round six days a week.

Pathologist Claire Fuller from Salisbury concluded that he died from a neck fracture due to falling down the stairs.

Verdict: Accidental death.