A FORMER heroin addict took a fatal overdose of sleeping pills after appearing in court charged with killing a man in Leeds, an inquest heard.

Christopher Cole, of Holly Street, Nelson, was overcome with depression after being charged with the manslaughter of a man in the West Yorkshire city.

Cole, 29, was arrested after allegedly hitting a man outside a house in Rothwell on April 3 last year along with a second man, Steven Joyce, 36, of Leeds.

Both men appeared at the city's magistrates court on October 16 last year but following the case, Cole became so distraught he took his own life.

His mother, Teresa Ludgrove, told the inquest her son had repeatedly said he wished he was dead because he could not handle the stress of the court case.

The court heard he had tried to kill himself before.

Mrs Ludgrove said: "He could not live with it, he would wake up screaming and he had to sleep with the light on. I did not think he would kill himself because I thought he loved me."

Cole's step-father David Aitken, of the Feather's pub in Colne Road, Brierfield, added: "He was gutted because he did not think he would be charged."

The inquest heard Cole had been drinking heavily through the day on Sunday, January 19. He left the pub at around 10pm to go home but when his step-father tried to phone him the next day there was no answer.

He was later found dead in his bed having taken five times the lethal dose of a sleeping tablet.

A post mortem examination revealed the cause of death was toxicity due to the pills.

East Lancashire Coroner Richard Taylor said the distress shown over the court case, the previous attempted suicide and the high level of sleeping pills all pointed to the conclusion that Cole had intended to take his own life.

He said: "The evidence is overwhelming and points to the fact that in a state of distress he intended to take his own life and that is the verdict I record."