Keith Flint: Prodigy star took drugs before death

Pic-Keith Flint was found dead at his home in Essex

Staff reporter,essex(wp/bbc):::

The Prodigy singer Keith Flint had unspecified amounts of cocaine, alcohol and codeine in his system when he died, an inquest heard.

The musician was found dead at his home in North End, Essex, on 4 March.

Chelmsford Coroner's Court heard Flint, 49, died due to hanging.

Senior Coroner for Essex Caroline Beasley-Murray recorded an open conclusion into his death, adding there was not evidence to say he had taken his own life.

The inquest heard the musician was found by a friend.

Ms Beasley-Murray said: "We will never quite know what was going on his mind on that date.

"I've considered suicide. To record that, I would have to have found that, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Flint formed the idea and took a deliberate action knowing it would result in his death.

"Having regard to all the circumstances I don't find that there's enough evidence for that."

The coroner also said there was insufficient evidence to record the singer's death as an accident where he may have been "larking around and it all went horribly wrong".

She told the court Mr Flint's family and band manager did not wish to attend the inquest.

On Tuesday, The Prodigy's Twitter account posted a message about mental health and urged people to not "suffer in silence".

Ms Beasley-Murray asked for the court's sympathy to be passed to Mr Flint's family.

"He clearly was extremely popular, he was much-loved by so many fans," she said.

Thousands of music lovers lined the streets of Essex on 29 March for the funeral of the star, who had number one hits with Breathe and Firestarter.