A 'FIT and healthy' teenage rugby player was found dead at his home in Penryn after a tragic accident involving aerosol cans, an inquest has heard.

Penryn College student Nathan Dunstan aged 15, who was 6ft 2ins and well built, was found dead in his bed at his home on the morning of October 31, 2019.

His mother Larissa Dunstan told the inquest that prior to his death, Nathan was a rugby player who was fit and healthy and she couldn't remember the last time they had taken him to the doctors.

She said he was 6ft 2ins tall and was strong and well built and looked older than his true age.

However she said there was a dark side to his personality and he had self harmed in the past but since he had got a new girlfriend six months earlier, who was 'really good for him', it had stopped.

She told the inquest she and Nathan's father Rob had struggled with Nathan's behaviour for the past few years.

He had been moved from Penryn College to Mullion School for a time.

"We asked social services for help and support and a youth worker was allocated.

"Nathan could lose his temper quickly and could become aggressive," she said.

Mrs Dunstan said after spending a number of months at Mullion School, Nathan returned to Penryn College, and since that time things had seemed good.

"He returned to playing rugby and seemed to be in a better place," she said. "He was in trouble in school the week before half-term when he got into a fight with another boy."

He had refused to go to school on the Thursday and Friday before half term and also on the Monday afterwards, October 28, three days before his death.

"We were upset about this and I wrote a note telling him this was a important year for him he needed to get back to school and the next day he did go back," she said.

DI Richard Schofield from the child protection unit based in Redruth told the inquest that in an interview with Nathan's girlfriend, she said that the pair had been communicating by text most of the evening of October 30, 2019.

She said he was very worried that she would cheat on him or end the relationship and was very apologetic about it, saying he loved her and was sorry about how he had acted.

"She replied 'Honestly I love you too'," said DI Schofield. "Nathan says to her 'If I die, I am sorry.' She replied 'What do you mean? I love you.'."

He said there was no response to that final message. She told the police Nathan would abuse aerosols to feel high and help him sleep.

DI Schofield said a large number of aerosols were found and they were all empty.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, acting senior coroner Andrew Cox said he found no evidence that Nathan intended to take his own life and that he had died from inhalation of 'volatile gases'.

"Nathan's practice for some time, unknown to his parents, was to use aerosols whether to get short lived high or to numb his feelings or insecurities, or to help him sleep, or a combination of all of that, I'm not sure," he said in his summing up.

"But it does strike me that Nathan may well have been aware of the risk because of the comment he makes to his girlfriend on the evening of the 30th of October. Even though he seems to have been aware of some of the risk that he was running, nevertheless he seems to have been willing to take that risk.

"Tragically what has happened is that on the morning of the 31st of October 2019 he is deceased in his bed."