A man tormented by 'demons in his head' killed himself in his flat after years of cocaine abuse an inquest heard on Monday.

Matthew Doolan, 33, of Milton Close, Horton was found on February 27 after his worried mother Karen Lovell was unable to get an answer on the phone.

In a statement read out at the inquest she said her son had phoned her several times the day before in a state of distress.

She said: "He kept repeating there were Romanians in his loft, or that they were trying to get into the flat. He was very paranoid."

She described their final conversation.

"I said I would call him in the morning. He said 'I love you mum, God bless you' and hung up."

When she did not get an answer next day she went with her husband Robert Lovell to Mr Doolan's flat where neighbours said he had been seen leaning out of a front window at 7.30am in a state of distress, insisting his parents had been killed in an accident.

Mr Lovell tried to get into the flat but found it had been barricaded from inside with a sofa.

Mr Doolan's neighbour Andrew Morgan got a ladder and climbed up the outside of the building so he could look in the window.

An ambulance was called and paramedics found Mr Doolan already dead - hunched in the traditional 'recovery' position with a knife next to him and a serious neck wound.

Mr Doolan's partner Roma O'Brien - who had a daughter by Mr Doolan - described him in her statement as 'the nicest man in the whole world. He was my life'.

But she said that during the last three months of his life he was taking cocaine more and more. She said he had begun showing her videos of people having their throats cut which had worried her.

She said: "I don't know if watching material like this had an affect."

Berkshire assistant coroner Ian Wade returned a verdict that Mr Doolan 'committed suicide while the balance of his mind was disturbed'.

He told Mr Doolan's family that he had obviously suffered badly from 'demons in his head', saying: "He was not in his right mind when he did this. He was not thinking correctly."