Former London gangster Dave Courtney was found with a gunshot wound in his home, an inquest has heard.

Tributes were paid to the 64-year-old who died last month, including one from a close friend from Kent who said it was “such a sad loss” that has “broken many hearts”.

At the time, Chatham author Rocky Troiani said he had been left heartbroken by the sudden death of his friend.

“This is a post I never thought I would be writing,” he added.

“The loss of Dave Courtney is beyond words – so heartbreaking to write. Dave had been a close friend for many years as well as a great support for my charity work.

“Dave had a heart of pure gold and would help anyone who genuinely needed it. I will miss my Christmas Eve call this year. Such a sad loss and one that has broken many hearts too. God bless you sir you will be so sadly missed.”

An inquest was opened into his death on Wednesday by coroner Dr Julian Morris at Southwark Coroner’s Court.

Dr Morris said Mr Courtney was discovered dead at his home on Chestnut Rise, Plumstead, and a preliminary post-mortem found the cause of death to be “a gunshot wound to the head”.

Detective Sergeant James Robinson, from Lewisham Police Station, told the court that two of Mr Courtney’s friends were at the address at the discovery of his death.

Both told the police that they had gone with Mr Courtney to watch Charlton Athletic win 4-0 against Reading the day before.

Det Sgt Robinson added: “Both stated David seemed quite happy and chirpy. They went to the pub on the way home.

“They spent the evening at Chestnut Rise as they quite often did talking, and drinking. They left and went to bed at some point in the evening, approximately 10pm, and they both saw Dave go into his bedroom.”

The court heard how one of the two friends told police he woke at about 3.30am to use the bathroom and heard Mr Courtney on the phone but “thought nothing of it”.

Det Sgt Robinson said Mr Courtney “would quite often spend a lot of the night on the phone to various people”.

The next morning the same friend went into Mr Courtney’s bedroom and found him slumped on the bed, “apparently dead”.

The court heard they called various family members to let them have “some last few minutes” with Mr Courtney and then called the police.

Police initially thought the circumstances were “not suspicious but unexplained” and required investigation, with particular concern over recovering the spent shell casing, although they had already recovered the firearm.

Mr Courtney’s property was searched and police found the casing in Mr Courtney’s bedroom along with several other firearms.

“One of his many professions was to make films, including gangster movies, and most of the weapons in the property were attributed to that,” Det Sgt Robinson said.

Police obtained Mr Courtney’s phone and found eight videos created in the early hours of October 22 – with each video appearing to say goodbye to a different family member.

The court was also told about a video that Mr Courtney made in July which seemed to refer to a suicide attempt and in which he spoke about a recent cancer diagnosis and the pain he suffered from arthritis.

The coroner said the circumstances of Mr Courtney’s death reached the threshold to open an inquest, which will be fixed at a later date once police have completed their investigations.

Mr Courtney was rumoured to be the inspiration behind Vinnie Jones’s character in Guy Ritchie’s gangster film Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels and claimed to be an associate of 1960s gangland criminals the Kray twins

After turning to writing, he published six books and starred in a film called Hell To Pay.