A martial arts instructor died after a five-day cocaine binge - having taken the drug to ease agonising toothache.

The body of Scott Caldwell, 44, was found by a river bank in a remote field off Trollaby Lane, Union Mills, on a cold winter’s day in February this year.

Coroner John Needham recorded a verdict of death as a result of non-dependence on drugs.

Passing on his condolences to Mr Caldwell’s widow Victoria, he said it was clear the deceased had been a family man who was very close to his wife and her two daughters.

’His passing must have been a terrible shock to all of you,’ he said.

In a statement, Victoria - who had met her husband-to-be when she was a student in his martial arts academy in 2012 and married him two years later - said: ’Scott was a loving husband, son, brother, father, stepfather and friend who is dearly missed by all, and will be remembered as such forever more.

’He will always be in our hearts and thoughts each day as the caring man that he was.’

The inquest heard that Dumbartonshire-born Mr Caldwell had complained about toothache about four weeks before his death. The pain got worse and worse and left him unable to walk in a straight line. His vision and balance were also affected.

He was prescribed antibiotics by his GP and also took co-codamol to relieve the pain.

His wife made an appointment with the emergency dentist who told him his tooth needed extracting. But he was reluctant to do so because of a previous bad experience.

Instead, he started to use cocaine to reduce the pain. He was also taking a higher than recommended dosage of co-codamol.

Mrs Caldwell said that her husband’s mood became strange. He was often on his phone and would disappear out, not saying where he was going.

At about midnight on Sunday February 4, he got a big bag full of clothes and said he was leaving their home at Berrywoods Avenue, Douglas.

She found him out side the Spar on Castlemona Colonnade, shivering with cold. By that time, he had not slept for four days.

She got him back home but he became angry and was snorting cocaine up both nostrils. ’I was telling him to stop but he just would not listen,’ she said. He jumped up and stormed out of the back door and the last she saw of him was as he headed towards Cronk y Berry School.

At 7.30am she got a call from her husband. He would not say where was and insisted he could not come home right now. Then at 10am she got another call from him, telling her he thought his heart was ’packing in’. He said he was in a field, by a river, somewhere near Peel.

Panicking, she went out in the car looking for him, and rang 999 from Braddan Bridge. A missing persons search was launched including a media appeal. At 2pm, Mrs Caldwell was informed by police that her husband had been found dead.

By his body was found a brown glass pill bottle half full of white powder. Tests confirmed cocaine of 18.6% purity.

A post mortem found that he had 2.67mg a litre of cocaine in his blood. Cause of death was given as acute cocaine toxicity combined with the effects of hypothermia.

Recording his verdict, the Coroner said there was no evidence that Mr Caldwell was dependent on cocaine. He said Mr Caldwell had been confused, didn’t know what he was doing, and had not been able to get somewhere warm.