AN INQUEST heard this week how a Penarth man gave his friend a haircut as he lay dead on his living-room floor after a boozy birthday party.

Cardiff coroner Mary Hassell heard how 50-year-old window cleaner Joseph Devlin, of Queens Road, died at the home of his friend, Denis Bracher, on June 5, 2005.

The court heard that Mr Devlin's death was natural, and caused by the effects of liver cirrhosis as a result of heavy drinking over a period of time.

Mr Bracher, of Laburnam Way, told the court that he had cooked his friend some food, then gave him a haircut and went to bed on the night he died.

He said: "I didn't realise he was dead at that time."

He told the court that Mr Devlin was going to clean windows that day, but decided to go to his house for the birthday party instead.

"He didn't want to climb the ladder," said Mr Bracher.

"We had a good drink and I told him that I would give him a haircut."

Jane Portelli, a friend of the pair who was also at the party, told the court that she thought Mr Devlin was sleeping on the floor.

She shook him before she left the house - but said she had not wanted to wake him.

The police were called once the friends realised that Mr Devlin was dead.

Mr Bracher said he had known Mr Devlin all his life and that they were really close friends.

He said: "Joey would regularly drink eight cans of cider a day - but I could never tell when he was drunk."

PC Michael Hawkes, who went to the house, told the inquest he saw cut hair in the living-room, which seemed "out of the ordinary".

Pathologist Stephen Leadbeater said the cause of death was alcoholic cirrhosis of his liver which occurred over a period of time - and not because of one night's drinking.

The Cardiff coroner returned a verdict of death by natural causes.