The 'love rival' of music legend Amy Winehouse died from a drugs overdose, a coroner ruled.

Sarah Aspin, 47, started dating the singer’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil after they split following a tempestuous two year marriage.

Miss Aspin, who had two children with Mr Fielder-Civil, was found unresponsive at her home, in Swillington, Leeds, West Yorkshire, on 7 February.

The inquest heard the mother-of-four had a long history of drug and alcohol misuse and had suffered domestic violence at the hands of a former partner Glen Redhead, who she met after splitting from Mr Fielder-Civil in 2018. 

Wakefield Coroner’s Court heard that on 6 February Miss Aspin spoke to her son and told him she had been given some drugs to take by Mr Redhead.

She had suffered domestic violence at the hands of Mr Redhead and in January, this year, police arrested him for strangulation and grievous bodily harm offences against her.

At the time of her death, he was on police conditional bail, and was on a domestic violence protection order to safeguard Miss Aspin.

The inquest heard that as part of the bail conditions he was banned from contacting his former partner.

However, Mr Redhead ignored the order and it was he who discovered Miss Aspin ‘unresponsive’ at her bungalow and he who called the ambulance service.

Paramedics could not revive Miss Aspin and they contacted West Yorkshire Police, who arrested Mr Redhead at the scene.

A postmortem found Miss Aspin had multiple physical ailments, for which she was prescribed powerful painkillers, such as dihydrocodeine and pregabalin.

However, the inquest heard that the fatal levels of methadone in her system, had not come from doses prescribed to her.

Pathologist Dr Chris Johnson found cause of death to be methadone, dihydrocodeine and pregabalin toxicity, in association with the use of other drugs.

Her mother, Patricia Aspin, told the hearing that her daughter was the third of four children and that she had gone on to drama college after school. 

She went on to work in an office, but had not been employed for many years at the time of her death.

'Sarah had been in a relationship with her partner Glen Redhead for about nine months, when she sadly passed away,' said her mother.

'But, the relationship was not a good one.'

Following Mr Redhead’s arrest at her home on 7 February, Detective Constable Elizabeth Richings, of West Yorkshire Police, conducted an investigation, but found that there were no suspicious circumstances and no third party was involved in her death.

The inquest heard the combination of drugs, at such high levels, would have had a strong sedative effect and caused respiratory depression.

Assistant Coroner Helena Gallagher, concluded that Miss Aspin’s death was ‘drug related’ and that there were no suspicious circumstances.

'There was no evidence that any alleged assault had played a role in Sarah’s death,' said the coroner.

'I express my sincere condolences to Sarah’s family and friends at this difficult time.'

Miss Aspin began dating Mr Fielder-Civil in 2011 after they met in rehab, not long after his highly-publicised marriage to the Back to Black singer ended. 

Despite the label as Winehouse's ‘love rival’, Miss Aspin allowed Mr Fielder-Civil to spend one final evening with a vulnerable Winehouse before her tragic death in 2011.