A WOMAN with a history of depression who was prescribed opiate painkillers died after taking too much morphine.

Rebecca Ford, who had lived at the Salvation Army on Heaton Street in Blackburn, was found dead at a flat in De Lacy House on Preston New Road on September 17.

At an inquest in Blackburn it was heard that the 31-year-old had been suffering with cellulitis in her leg as well as mental health problems.

She had also had issues with drug addiction and had sporadically been engaging with the drugs service, Inspire.

The inquest was told she and Terrence Marshall had been smoking heroin in his flat until around 4am before falling asleep.

Mr Marshall woke at lunchtime on September 17 and in his statement he says Rebecca was still asleep.

Coroner James Newman said: “He then went back to sleep and woke up again at around 7.50pm and found she was unresponsive on the bed.”

A post mortem examination found evidence of cellulitis and an abscess in her right calf which had become infected due to persistent injecting.

Toxicology found a high level of morphine in her blood along with cocaine, anti-depressants and paracetamol.

Mr Newman said: “She was a young lady who stumbled into certain things which then led to a spell with drugs and once she started down that path it was hard to come away from it.

“I have said this before and I will say it again, drugs and mental health are the demons of our time and they can sometimes both go hand in hand.

“It might’ve been that she needed more pain relief.

“She died as a result of morphine toxicity, secondary to cellulitis for which she was prescribed morphine, and therefore I record a conclusion of misadventure.”