A mystery assault has been ruled out as the cause of the Christmas Day death of a Norwich garage owner.

53-year-old panel beater Simon Stenton was found dead last December in a flat above Norfolk Fast Track Repair, the garage he owned on Whiffler Road in the NR3 area of Norwich.

An inquest into his death was held on August 19, with the court hearing allegations that Mr Stenton had been a victim of an assault at the garage on Christmas Eve.

However, subsequent investigations found no evidence to suggest that this event ever happened. 

Norfolk Coroner's Court was told that Mr Stenton's partner found him unresponsive in his bed on Christmas Day, having gone to check on him after not hearing from him since the day before.

The court heard that his death was not initially treated as suspicious by police, but that four days later an anonymous informant told officers that an assault on Mr Stenton had taken place on Christmas Eve.

Officers collected CCTV footage from the property which showed that three people had left the garage at various points during the day, including one who remains unidentified. However, no evidence of an assault was found.

A post-mortem of Mr Stenton's body, carried out by Dr Virginia Fitzpatrick-Swallow, found that he had suffered an injury to his eye but ruled this out as a cause of death.

Instead, the medical cause of his death was given as cocaine toxicity.

Jacqueline Lake, Norfolk's senior coroner, concluded he had died a drug-related death.

She said: "Dr Fitzpatrick-Swallow found no evidence of a natural disease which could have contributed to his death and no traumatic injuries related to his death.

"On that basis, I am satisfied there was no unlawful killing and no evidence of an assault."