A 22-YEAR-OLD man working in his family business died days after being found in his Poole home.

Louis Gerard Burden was found unconscious in his flat and sadly died five days later in hospital.

An inquest held at Bournemouth Town Hall on August 2 heard that Louis worked as a car auction assistant in the family business and lived on Avenel Way in Poole.

His father, Paul Burden, told Dorset Coroner’s Court that Louis was into rap music, cars and spending time with his friends.

He added that Louis had worked in the family business since he was 17 years old and was supported by a loving family.

Assistant coroner for Dorset, Richard Middleton, said Louis’ GP had not seen him in recent years and had no record of mental health issues.

Mr Burden told the court that social media, lockdown and Covid conspiracies did not help Louis’ mental health.

Over the Christmas period Louis spent a lot of time with his family with his father calling him every day.

On January 5 Louis and his father were due to return to work after the festive period, with Mr Burden usually picking up his son from a location in Poole at around 7am.

“We had done that successfully for many years, I would normally send him a reminder text,” said Mr Burden.

However, on this day, Mr Burden was feeling unwell so tried to contact Louis at around 6am to inform him they would be leaving later.

Louis did not respond to his father's call or text message and later replied at around 8.30am apologising for sleeping in.

They agreed to meet at 10am however, when Mr Burden arrived Louis was not there.

He tried another location before heading towards Louis’ flat, which Mr Burden had a spare set of keys for.

Mr Burden told the court: “If he did not turn up, I would not go off without him.”

“It was a fact that I would not go anywhere until I found my son.”

Louis was found unconscious in his flat and emergency services arrived before transferring him to Poole General Hospital.

Louis remained on life support for five days before a decision was made that it was in his best interest to take him off.

He was pronounced dead on January 10 with his medical cause of death being determined as hypoxic brain injury.

Mr Middleton concluded that Louis died as a consequence of hanging but his intention at that time remains unclear.