A 15-year-old boy who had taken 16 times the normal recreational dose of ecstasy hanged himself, an inquest heard.

Schoolboy Glen Edwards was found with a noose made from a hose around his neck in a garden shed at his home in Bourton Close, Witney, on August 25 last year.

Raymond Griffiths, who was living with Glen and his mother, Patricia Messer, said he had taken him to the Deer Park Medical Centre, Witney, the day before he died because he was vomiting and seemed disorientated.

The court heard Glen denied taking drugs when he was questioned by a GP, and also when Mr Griffiths asked him again after they got home. Mr Griffiths said: "He had told me before, he had become involved in the local drugs scene and he did seem worried about it, but he never said he had taken anything other than cannabis."

Dr Winifred Gray, a consultant pathologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, gave the cause of Glen's death as suffocation.

She said he had taken 16 times the normal recreational dose of the drug ecstasy.

Det Insp Peter Coleman, from Woodstock CID, said rumours reached police that Glen might have been looking after drugs for other people, but this was never confirmed.

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner said: "At 15, he is likely to have been a fairly naive drug-user who did not appreciate the significance of the dosage he was taking."

Mr Gardiner recorded an open verdict.