A heartbroken father and son died within months of one another while struggling to come to terms with a shared family bereavement.

Scott Bourner, 49, and his father Gary Bourner, 69, died in September and February respectively, in the same Roughton caravan the latter dwelled.

Inquests into both men's deaths were held in Norwich on Monday, July 17.

The court heard the pair each had a long history with alcohol abuse, for which they were seeking support.

But it also heard how they had respectively struggled to cope with the loss of Gary's partner - Scott’s mother - who died in November 2022.

Scott Bourner, who lived in Cromer, was the first of the pair to die, on September 22 last year.

DS Rob Waring, of Norfolk Constabulary, told the court Gary had found his son unresponsive hours after he had threatened to take an overdose of oral morphine.

Mr Bourner had told the police his son had a period of abstinence from alcohol but "hit it again with a vengeance" following the death of his mother.

Senior coroner Jacqueline Lake said the medical cause of Scott's death had been combined alcohol and morphine toxicity - and concluded he died a drug-related inquest.

Meanwhile, a separate inquest for Gary heard he was found dead in his caravan on February 7 - with his medical cause of death given as bronchopneumonia and morphine toxicity.

Mrs Lake concluded Gary had died of natural causes, which was contributed to by morphine toxicity.

In a statement, Wendy Bourner, Gary's estranged wife, told the court: "Gary always had problems with alcohol which is why we separated.

"After his partner passed on he and Scott abused alcohol all day every day."

Mrs Lake said: "There is no direct evidence he [Gary] had any intention to take his own life."

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