RICHARD Campbell, 61, died after he broke his neck falling down the stairs in the middle of the night, an inquest heard.

The hearing in Chippenham on Thursday heard that Mr Campbell fell down steep stairs at his home in High Street, Seend, at around 1.45am on April 7, probably while he was going to the bathroom.

Mr Campbell had spent the evening at the Seend Social Club on Rusty Lane with his friend John Tilley.

Mr Tilley said in a statement that although Mr Campbell was not his normal self when he first came into the club he was still cheery.

They had a few pints of cider and some glasses of gin and then Mr Campbell walked home at 11.30pm.

Mr Campbell, who slept in a different room from his wife Elizabeth, went to bed on the first floor after saying good night.

Mrs Campbell was woken just before 2am when she heard a loud noise.

"It was a thud or a bang. 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," she said.

Her dog remained asleep on the other bed in her room.

Mrs Campbell got out of bed and went on to the first floor landing and turned the light on.

She told the inquest: "I saw him at the bottom of the stairs. He was lying on his back.

Minutes later an ambulance arrived after Mrs Campbell dialled 999. Paramedics tried to resuscitate Mr Campbell but failed.

The police were also called to the scene.

PC Karl Broadhead noticed the door at the bottom of the stairs had come off its hinges during the fall.

"He fell down the stairs and struck his head on the way down and catapulted into the door, breaking the bottom hinge" he said.

During the fall Mr Campbell had broken his nose, dislocated some of his vertebra and broken his neck.

"He had facial injuries and blood and swelling to his face. He was wearing his pyjamas," said PC Broadhead.

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.

Mr Campbell would have passed the top of the stairs on his way from his bedroom to the bathroom.

"There was nothing for him to fall over. I just presume he lost his balance," she said.

Recording a verdict of accidental death Coroner David Masters suggested Mr Campbell may have been a little unbalanced because he had just woken and had been drinking a few hours earlier.