3:31pm Saturday 8th February 2014 in News By Lucy Richardson
A WOMAN with a history of self harm and overdosing took a lethal cocktail of sleeping pills, two of which she had not been prescribed.
Kendra Butler was found dead in bed after taking a mixture of diazepam from her doctor as well as clorazepate and nordiazepam which is illegal in the UK.
An inquest held at Teesside Magistrates’ Court on Friday heard that Miss Butler, 45, from Cowper Road in Tilery, Stockton, who had a personality disorder, spent the night she died at her sister Kim Butler’s house on the same street.
“She had an addiction to tablets and she used to buy them off the streets,” she said.
Miss Butler told the court that her younger sister had gone outside to have a cigarette at about 12.10am on the morning of October 22 last year and then she checked on her at 4am.
It was only when she had not roused by 8.50am that the mother was discovered lying on her side dressed in pyjamas, having died after slipping into a coma during the night.
Pathologist Dr Kaushik Dasgupta said that he had found scars from previous attempts at self harm on her body and she had suffered from acute bronchitis in her lungs caused by Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
He said the drug nordiazepam found in her blood was four to six times stonger than diazepam which, combined with the other tablets and the lung infection, caused her to die peacefully in her sleep.
Clare (CORR) Bailey, Assistant Coroner for Teesside, recorded a verdict of misadventure.
“She took overdoses in the past and there was evidence of self harm, however I have no evidence that on this occasion she intended to take her own life,” she said.