AN open verdict was recorded in the death of a 72-year-old diabetic found dead at his home.

Neighbour Vida Richardson in a statement told an inquest Dennis Robinson was a quiet man who lived next door to her in Honeysuckle House sheltered accommodation, York.

But from 3pm on November 23, when she returned home, during the night and at 7am the next morning she heard his television and radio playing very loudly.

The inquest heard that day, a district nurse found Mr Robinson slumped in a chair inside his flat with 11 empty containers of insulin around the chair.

Carol Heath, who had known Mr Robinson for 16 years, told the inquest when she visited him on November 22 to help him and do some shopping, he told her he was worried about something that had happened many years earlier.

He had told her: “I may as well take all my insulin.” The inquest was not told what had concerned Mr Robinson.

Dr Maheswaran, consultant pathologist at York Hospital, who carried out a post-mortem examination on Mr Robinson, said he found signs of ongoing and historic heart disease. It was impossible for him to say what level of glucose he had had at the time he died for biochemical reasons, but there may have been a heart problem that was exacerbated by insulin. He gave the cause of death as heart disease and possibly an insulin overdose.

The inquest heard doctors had treated Mr Robinson for heart problems for some years.

Coroner Donald Coverdale said he could not be sure that Mr Robinson had deliberately taken his own life and he couldn’t exclude the possibility of an accidental death, and therefore he had to record an open verdict.