A MAN died after apparently cutting his jugular vein with a razor blade just days after being released from prison.

Recovering drug addict Kevin Short was found in the bathroom of the flat he shared with partner Susan Jones in Colemans Hill, Headington.

An inquest at Oxfordshire Coroner’s Court on Wednesday heard Mr Short’s body was found at 10am on January 29 next to a razor blade removed from a disposable shaver.

The 41-year-old, who had an extensive criminal record, had been released from Bullingdon Prison just eight days earlier.

His partner told the inquest they had been in a relationship for about three years and admitted both of them had alcohol problems.

Of the hours before his death, she added: “The night before, when he came home, he was really different.

“He suffers from panic attacks and I just thought he was having one of them.

“He kept thinking someone was going to get in and murder him.”

Miss Jones said the pair stayed up until 6am while Mr Short wrote a number of letters.

Dc Karl Ralph told the hearing they were not suicide notes.

When Miss Jones woke up she found her partner covered in blood in the bathroom.

Asked how Mr Short was acting after his release, Miss Jones said: “He was different. He was quiet.”

She said she did not think he was back on drugs, but was angry that Mr Short’s methadone prescription had been stopped due to his alcohol intake.

She told coroner Nicholas Gardiner: “You can’t just stop giving it to them – because you’re addicted to them.

“It’s like just stopping them on heroin, it’s not meant to be done.”

Pathologist Dr Ian Roberts said Mr Short’s jugular vein had been cut.

He told the inquest that the injury was “in keeping with that created by a razor and it is a situation in keeping with self-inflicted injury”.

Mr Gardiner said he could not be sure that Mr Short intended to take his own life, and recorded an open verdict.

He said: “There must be some residual doubt that he really knew what he was doing.”