David Hockney's Assistant Dominic Elliott Died 'After Drinking Acid'

Artist David Hockney's personal assistant died at his home after drinking acid, an inquest has heard.

Dominic Elliott, 23, died in March after being taken from the painter's home in Bridlington, East Yorkshire to hospital in a serious condition.

Humberside Police said at the time results from the initial post-mortem showed there were "no obvious natural causes" for the death and no signs of violence.

An inquest into the 23-year-old's death said he had taken cocaine, ecstasy and temazepam before he drank the acid. Hockney was asleep upstairs at the time.

Hockney's former partner, John Fitzherbert, drove Elliott to Scarborough Hospital in the early hours of the morning, but the personal assistant later died of acute peritonitis.

Dr Richard Shepherd said the acid severely burned Elliott's mouth, tongue and throat before bursting his stomach.

It is reported Elliot had been drinking heavily and smoking cannabis on the day of his death.

Elliott worked as assistant for the artist at his studio. Hockney painted a picture of him in 2008.

Bradford-born Hockney is considered one of Britain's leading living artists. More than 600,000 people visited his show A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy in 2012, which Elliott had helped prepare.

Hockney's 1963 painting Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes was valued at £3m by auction house Christie's this year.