A FATHER of five died after swallowing 54 anti-depressant tablets - 11 times the killer dose. However, coroner Mr Barrie Williams returned an open verdict as he felt there was insufficient evidence to record Mr Thomas Duff's death as suicide.

An inquest in Bury on Friday (April 16) heard how even though Mr Duff had expressed suicidal tendencies as a he fought against a ten-year drink and drug addiction, it was not clear whether the 39-year-old had intended to kill himself when he took the tablets on January 3.

Mr Williams was told how the Northern Ireland national, who moved to Bury 15 years ago after separating from the mother of four of his children, regularly took dothiepin anti-depressants to help bring him off an amphetamine-induced high.

Recording an open verdict, Mr Williams said: "I think this was probably an act of suicide.

"However, he regularly took tablets as an antidote to the amphetamines and his death could have been accidental."

The inquest was told how days before Mr Duff's death in the coronary care unit at Bury General Hospital on January 3, the registered alcoholic had discharged himself from Fairfield General Hospital's psychiatric unit where he was receiving treatment for his addictions.

Mr Duff's sister, Mrs Sandra Hogg, said: "Thomas told me he wanted to come off amphetamines and that he had used up his supply. After leaving hospital, my husband George and I were concerned about his health and kept a 24-hour vigil at his home. There was no concern that he would try to take his own life."

Mr Duff, who had a fifth child with his girlfriend Miss Vicky Noone, was rushed to hospital during the early hours of January 3 after falling unconscious at his flat in Massey Street, Bury.

He died hours later from a heart attack caused by the overdose of dothiepin.

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