A heroic tree surgeon who was found dead six years after helping to send a crime gang boss to jail following a savage axe attack died with cocaine and five other drugs in his system, an inquest has heard.

Cameron Brooksbank, 24, known by his loved ones as Cam, was pronounced dead after being found unresponsive at an address in Middleton, Rochdale, Greater Manchester on June 18 last year.

His heroic role in jailing the gangster was the most compelling part of BBC's true crime documentary The Detectives, which showed Greater Manchester Police finally triumphing over the drugs syndicate after Cameron bravely testified in two trials.

An inquest yesterday found a mix of prescription drugs and cocaine were in his system when he died - but a coroner concluded Cameron did not intend to take his own life.

His tragic death came six years after was the victim of a brutal axe attack that he said 'completely changed his life' and meant he was no longer 'the same person'. 

At the time of the attack, Cameron was just a teenager working as a tree surgeon when he intervened in a road rage incident in Rochdale in 2017, where he was working.

He and his workmates came across gangster Habibur Rahman launching a furious tirade at an elderly woman sat in a stationary Citroen. 

Cameron was pronounced dead after being found unresponsive at an address on June 18 2023

But the attackers turned on him and he was struck by an axe in the armpit, and then on the wrist as he tried to shield his head from another blow, almost fully severing his hand. 

His hand was reattached during five gruelling surgeries in two years which gave him back just 60 per cent use of his arm. 

He then twice gave evidence in court against his attacker - high-ranking drug dealer Mohammed Awais Sajid - which led to him being jailed for 18 years.

Cam testified against drug dealer Mohammed Awais Sajid which saw him jailed for 18 years

 The gang raked in millions from the supply of heroin, crack and weed and its suspected leader Sajid Hussain laundered it through his kebab shop in the town. 

But the inquest at Rochdale Coroner's Court heard Cameron was 'devastated' by the attack and 'never' got over it. 

The sickening attack took a devastating toll discount on LSD stamps Cameron, as shown on the BBC2 fly-on-the-wall show.