When popular Philip Joy drank himself to death he

When popular Philip Joy drank himself to death he had the
alcohol equivalent of 18 pints of beer in his system, an inquest
was told on Thursday.

He was found collapsed on a seat at Catford’s shopping
precinct one Saturday.

Forty-year-old unemployed Philip had 545mg of alcohol
in a sample of blood – nearly seven times over the legal
limit for driving.

‘It is an enormously high figure.

It is one of the highest
this court has ever come across,’ commented Southwark coroner
Sir Montague Levine.

He said the alcohol in his blood could have been whisky
or vodka but it was the beer equivalent of 18 pints or 36 cans.

He added: ‘There have been deaths from alcohol poisoning with
300mg.

‘
The coroner described his illness as ‘alcoholism in the
true sense of the word.

‘
Philip’s father, Mr.

Dennis Joy, of Ravensbourne Road, Catford,
said his son could drink a bottle of vodka a day.

On the day he died he had drunk a whole bottle of whisky.

He said Philip – who never married but had two children –
started to drink heavily at the age of 20.

‘It always puzzled me where he got the money to do it.

When he came home drunk we would clean him up and try to get
him into a hospital.

‘
PC Nicholas Cole said after he was found slumped on the seat
on February 29 an ambulance was called but he was dead on arrival
at Lewisham Hospital.

He had probably been on the seat for an hour.

‘The assumption
was that he was just drunk.

He was well known there,’ said PC
Cole.

Pathologist Dr Gilbert Lau gave the cause of death as inhalation
of vomit associated with ‘acute alcohol intoxication and chronic
alcoholic liver disease.

‘
He had been so drunk that his cough reflex – which would
have cleared the vomit from his airways – failed to work.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Sir Montague remarked:
‘He was not a violent man and never got into fights.

He was good
tempered and had many friends and was well known in the area.

‘
ENDS