A FORMER university research assistant died in the back of a car after a drugs overdose, an inquest has heard.

Father-of-four Julian Hoskins, 42, who was living in the Amethyst Guest House in Sheppard Street, was found dead in the car park of Swindon railway station on August 31 last year.

He was in the back seat of a white-coloured Nissan Micra where he, along with three others, had injected heroin the night before.

The inquest at Gablecross Police Station yesterday heard how Mr Hoskins, originally from Gloucestershire, moved to Swindon early last year after his relationship with his wife Trudy broke down.

He had been working as a research assistant at the University of Bath as part of a psychology research team looking into pain management.

The inquest heard that Mr Hoskins' life then began to fall apart.

In a statement Mrs Hoskins, who now lives in South Africa, said: "He was very controlling over me and the kids and he was physically abusive, but I never took it further."

Allegations of paedophilia, neglect and assault were made against Mr Hoskins, and he lost his job when it was found that he had been stealing vouchers from the university.

Fearing reprisals over the allegations of paedophilia, he was moved to Swindon's Davis House where Det Con Robert Harrington of Swindon Police said Mr Hoskins began mixing with known alcoholics and drug addicts.

DC Harrington said: "Even though he had somewhere to stay he would often sleep rough and he was a confirmed drug addict."

On the day before his death, Mr Hoskins met several other addicts he knew: Faisal Ali, Neil Davies - known as Taffy - and Terry Embling.

All three men were among the last people to see Mr Hoskins alive.

Earlier in the day he shared a 10lb bag of heroin with one of the three, but later all four purchased two bags between them after apparently selling items such as Oil of Olay to taxi drivers.

In a statement Neil Davies said: "The car came from a guy who said he was leaving the country, he gave me the keys and said I could have it.

"I couldn't drive it because I couldn't remember if I was still banned.

"But it had no battery and I lost the keys anyway."

All four retired to the car to inject their heroin, but Mr Hoskins only used a small amount, saying he would leave the rest for later, he then promptly fell asleep, snoring loudly for most of the evening.

It was only when one of the men, Terry Embling, returned to the car the next morning at 7am that he found Mr Hoskins dead, and an ambulance was called.

Embling said: "I shouted and screamed at him but he didn't move. I opened the car door and shook him, but there was no movement. I could see he was dead."

Wiltshire and Swindon assistant deputy coroner Peter Hatvany determined that Mr Hoskins died as a result of a drugs dependency.