A former bodybuilder who fell to his death had taken cocaine at the top of 3,560ft Snowdon, a coroner said.

North West Wales senior coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said diazepam had been taken, too. Cocaine would have made him less careful and might explain the tragedy.

The coroner said when cocaine played a part in fatalities “a carefree attitude is part of the characteristics in all those cases”.

A conclusion of accidental death was recorded at Caernarfon on muscular Malcolm Tinsley, a doorman of Ashtons Green Drive, Parr, St Helens, aged 27 when he died in July last year.

Pathologist Dr Mark Lord said there was extensive head injury but also cocaine in the blood. “I would expect he would have been intoxicated by it,” said Dr Lord.

Stephen Brown told the inquest he had walked up the highest peak in England and Wales with Mr Tinsley. He said : “Malcolm was taking telephone calls and making texts and kept catching me up. He found it hard going. He would have found it easy if he didn’t make the telephone calls or texts. He was lagging behind and having to run to catch me up.”

At the summit they took photographs. “At the very top he pulled out a bag and said ‘take a picture’. That’s the first time I’ve seen him with the cocaine. I presume he had been taking it going up. He asked me to take a photograph of him with a bag of cocaine at the top,” he maintained.

Mr Tinsley had appeared happy. But 30 minutes after starting their descent the walk turned to tragedy. He heard Mr Tinsley shout “Ste” and he fell about 40ft. There was a rock face.

Mr Brown said :”I can only guess he lost his balance. He went and peered over the edge. It’s a jagged rock.” He’d left the path.

He faced questions from Mr Tinsley’s family about the events.

Jason Tunnicliffe, who was with another group on the peak, said the pair had been laughing before the fall. He saw Mr Tinsley in the air “flipping” as he plunged to his death.

The coroner said he had come across cases of drugs being taken to help walkers cope with the strain of the physical exertion. Falling at the location wasn’t unusual.

A family member said Mr Tinsley gave up bodybuilding twelve months before the tragedy and took up boxing.