Julia Devine, 36, died on July 20 after taking "a substantial amount of heroin and cocaine," a Chester inquest was told.

Mother-of-one Mrs Devine was married but separated from her husband, Paul, in June, 2007. However, they were still in contact and two days before she died they went for a drink together.

The night before she died Mrs Devine stayed at her friend John Walker's house at Thackeray Towers in Francis Street, Newtown.

Mr Walker told the hearing he met Mrs Devine at a rehabilitation programme in the city and she would stay with him as a friend.

On July 19 Mrs Devine had been at work and then went to Mr Walker's flat at about 8.30pm.

Mr Walker said: "She had been in work and then had gone for a few drinks with the girls.

"She had had no call from Paul which I thought was unusual.

"She went out later and came back. She was watching a film and that was the last time I saw her alive.

"She said she had slung whatever drugs she had and was having a special brew."

Mr Walker said when he woke at 6am he found Mrs Devine knelt on all fours dead by the side of the couch.

He added: "We got on well. She was down to earth and to be honest one of the lads. She was a good friend."

The inquest heard Mrs Devine was born in Blackpool and moved out of the family home at 16.

Her father, Lance Stokes, said: "When she went to live with someone the drug usage was spiralling out of control.

"We used to go round and see her with this guy she was living with. On the surface they tried to make it look like everything was all right but I knew it wasn't."

He said the family would give her food but what she really wanted was money to buy drugs.

After a term in Styal Prison because of her drug usage Mrs Devine met her husband and went to live with him at Kinnaird House, City Road, Chester.

At that time she also was undergoing drugs rehabilitation in the city.

Mr Stokes said: "We took everything with a pinch of salt because on the surface everything was going great but the next time we spoke to her everything had gone wrong.

"Two weeks before she died we spoke on the phone.

"She had had a fall out with Paul and was staying on someone's couch. She was pretty upset but she had been worse.

"Next we got the news she had died. It came like a bolt out of the blue. I thought she'd got over the worst of it""

Paul Devine told the inquest that at times his wife was clean of drugs but they split in June because of the drug taking.

They met up on July 18 for a drink in the city.

Mr Devine said: "We split up because I found she was using illegal drugs again.