THE dying words of a Chilbolton man were that his father had abused him as a child, an inquest heard.

The coroner’s court at Winchester on May 1, was told Adam Harris, 27, worked as a pest controller and killed himself by swallowing highly toxic tablets used to kill vermin.

But the former Sparsholt College student, who lived in Garston Mede with his mother, called emergency services on the morning of October 11, last year, asking for help.

Paramedic Rob Isherwood, of the Hazardous Area Response Team, attended the scene at West Down car park, Chilbolton.

“He (Mr Harris) confirmed that he attempted to kill himself. He said his father had abused him as a child,” he said.

Mr Isherwood told the hearing: “Adam himself phoned through to the ambulance service and told them that the substance was dangerous. He said it had not worked and that he needed help.”

The court heard also that Mr Harris was in considerable pain and took more than two hours to die from his injuries.

“He remained quite resigned and stoic about what he had done. He was more concerned about the risk to other people than himself at that point,” Mr Isherwood said.

Mr Harris’ mother, Susan Harris, said: “Adam’s friends were his family. He called his friends his family and he was always out with them.”

Central Hampshire Coroner, Grahame Short, said he had concerns about the way that the poison, aluminium phosphide, was stored and that he would contact Mr Harris’s employers at the time, MITIE.

But he added: “I’m going to write to MITIE about their procedures, although I do not feel his employer was directly responsible. He chose to do what he did.”

Recording a verdict of suicide, Mr Short said: “He had a number of reasons for his decision. There has been reference to his troubled childhood and I think that was probably the primary reason – that he could not live with that.”