A SOUTHAMPTON man, who used a wheelchair, died after taking an overdose of morphine in an attempt to treat "agonising pain".

Stewart Butt had consumed a fatal amount of prescribed Oramorph, known as liquid morphine, in an attempt to subdue the pain from his catheter.

The 45-year-old had texted his mother Caroline on the evening of February 24 to say he had drunk a “third of a bottle of morphine but it still “aint working”, adding he was in agony.

The following morning, having heard nothing from him, Mrs Wilson contacted Stewart’s neighbour to ask to check on him.

Winchester Coroner’s Court heard how Karl Ford had to barge his way into the house as he did not have a key.

He then found his friend of three-and-a-half years slumped in his wheelchair upstairs.

An ambulance was called but Mr Butt, of Atlantic Park View, was pronounced dead at the scene.

PC David Oliver, who was at the scene, said another text was found on Stewart’s phone, but it had not been sent.

Addressed to his mother, it read: “I am in so much pain. Do not know if I will last the night without calling an out of hours doctor.

“It is doing me in and I do not sleep much even though I’ve taken meds.” The court heard how, as a 14-year-old, Stewart was hit by a car and suffered brain damage.

His mother said he was also assaulted in 2014 in Southampton, suffering a broken neck.

This left him paralysed.

As a result of the assault, Stewart found it difficult to sleep and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

He also had Bipolar.

His psychiatrist Shilpa Balakrishna, of Southampton General Hospital, said her patient was depressed but showed no signs of taking his own life.

Senior coroner Grahame Short recorded a conclusion of a drugs-related death, adding: “I rule out suicide and leave to one side an accidental conclusion.

“It is such that although he clearly said that he was suffering he was unable to call for an ambulance.

"This was a consequence of the morphine.”