AN Amblecote man who committed suicide by taking an overdose was ‘never the same’ after being badly beaten up during his teenage years, an inquest heard.

Steven Brogan, 39, who the Black Country Coroner’s Court heard had a history of depression, took his own life in April this year in his bedroom at his parents’ home in Brettell Lane.

The parents of Mr Brogan, a VAT consultant and former VAT inspector, said he was a ‘very intelligent, kind and giving man’ who ‘could not do enough for people’.

And they felt his spiral into depression was caused by the attack when he was still at school back in the mid-1990s that was so severe it left him needing plastic surgery.

Mr Brogan’s parents were present at the inquest but were not called to the stand as witnesses.

They told Senior Black Country Coroner Mr Zafar Siddique: “When he was 16, doing his GCSEs, he got attacked late one night, very badly. He swallowed his tongue.

“He had to have a six-hour plastic surgery operation and that did his confidence in. He was never the same after that.”

Coroner Mr Siddique told the court that Mr Brogan was found unresponsive in his bedroom on the morning of April 20 by his parents, who had recently returned from holiday.

A search of his mobile phone internet revealed Mr Brogan – who was taking anti-depressants at the time of his death – had researched drug overdoses.

Mr Siddique related a report from Steven’s GP, Dr John Woolley, of the Lion Health Surgery, to the court, which said Mr Brogan had felt he was ‘coping’ in his last appointment in November 2017.

However, Mr Brogan, who was unmarried but had a girlfriend who lived in Great Barr, cancelled three further follow-up appointments.

The report said that Mr Brogan had reported suicidal thoughts back in 2010, 2011 and 2013, adding: “He struggled with anxiety and depression on and off for many years.

“He had a pattern where some form of life event or stress at work would trigger an episode of low mood and would require a variety of different interventions.”

Mr Siddique concluded that Mr Brogan had taken his own life via a tramadol overdose, adding: “It’s an absolutely tragic state of affairs what’s happened.

“Given the fact he had been researching methods of taking your own life, I can be sure that he did intend to take his own life and this wasn’t just a cry for help.”

Addressing Mr Brogan’s parents, he added: “You speak of him very fondly and I encourage you to remember all of his good sides and the good things that happened.”