AN 18-year-old who died of a heroin overdose had been using drugs since he was 12, an inquest heard yesterday.

Simon Conley was found dead at his uncle Kevin Dowson's home in Vine Street, St Hilda's, Middlesbrough, on April 16, last year.

Mr Dowson told Teesside Coroner's Court he returned from the pub to find the unemployed teenager lying unconscious on the sofa with a needle in his arm.

An ambulance was called, but Mr Conley, of Windsor Gardens, St Hilda's, could not be revived.

A post-mortem examination showed he had injected heroin and had taken at least 23 diazepam tablets.

Mr Dowson said his nephew had twice previously overdosed on heroin, even though he was only an occasional user of the drug.

Psychiatrist Dr Edith Willimot, of West Lane Hospital, Middlesbrough, told the court Mr Conley was known to have been using drugs since 1995 and, in 1997, had stabbed himself in the liver. She said his problems were thought to stem partly from the death of his four-month-old sister when he was a child.

Deputy Coroner Gordon Hetherington, recording a verdict of death by misadventure, said there was no evidence to suggest Mr Conley was suicidal. "I think it is likely that he intended to take tablets and to take heroin, but not to kill himself," he said.