THE mother of a north Belfast man who died after becoming addicted to heroin has told how she believes "he would be be here today if he had got the help he needed" for his mental health.
An inquest into the death of Joel Curley (25) heard that he had only begun injecting heroin in the months leading up to his death.
His mother Joanie Bennett told how she believes "the system let him down".
The court, sitting in Lisburn, heard that Mr Curley was found dead by his girlfriend at his Oakley Street home in Belfast last August.
She told of her frantic efforts to revive him after finding him slumped on the bedroom floor.
Via video-link from prison, she said in the months leading up to his death, they "were getting too sunk in by the heroin" and "were taking it every day".
She said they had met up in Castle Street before they went to Mr Curley's house with his friend.
Asked by coroner Joe McCriskin why they had gone to his house, she said "to take heroin... it was somewhere to go, something to do".
The following morning, she said she was "trying to ring him" as they went to his house to pick him up, but there was no answer.
"I just knocked on the door and he didn't answer," she said.
"A bottom window was open and I climbed in and went upstairs to get him, I thought he didn't hear me.
"I tried to open the bedroom door, but he was blocking it.
"I found him on his bedroom floor."
She said when she got into the room, "I just kept shaking him and asking him to wake up" and she saw a tie around his arm.
She also said Mr Curley's friend was "lying asleep on the bed".
The court heard the father-of-two had suffered from mental health problems and had been treated for anxiety and drug-induced psychosis.
His mother told the court that following his release from jail in March 2018, he was "not given the medical support he needed".
Ms Bennett said her son began taking legal highs at the age of 15 to deal with his mental health issues. She said he had only began injecting heroin nine months before he died.
"When he came out of prison, he was great, but he needed help with his mental health, that just wasn't there," she said.
"When he came out of prison, he had a list of things he was going to do, he wanted to get on with his life.
"He had done withdrawals two or three times a week, if he'd had the help with his mental health, he might have been able to come through this.
"The system let him down."
A post mortem revealed Mr Curley had a bacterial infection in one of his lungs and the presence of morphine, heroin, diazapam and alprazolam were detected.
The cause of death was recorded as pneumonia combined with heroin, diazepam and alprazolam toxicity.
Mr McCriskin said: "We have a long way to go, families like you have a part to play in moving this forward."
