A MAN facing dozens of child porn charges died from a massive overdose of pain killers just weeks after a failed suicide attempt, an inquest was told.

Accrington warehouse employee Stewart Hannah, 46, of Newport Street, Nelson, was accused of hoarding more than 30,000 pornographic images of young girls and appeared before Blackburn magistrates in May.

He had attempted to take his own life by taking a cocktail of vodka and paracetamol ten days earlier and was worried about the pain he was causing his family.

His wife, Lorraine, discovered he had taken an "enormous amount" of tablets in the early hours of Thursday, June 26, which led to his death.

Blackburn magistrates were told on May 23 that a sordid collection found in a raid on Hannah's home included 30 images classified as 'level five' which featured sadism or bestiality causing pain to an individual.

More than 300 were of the next level down and many of the images were of girls under the age of 10.

Stewart, a married father of children aged 16 and 14, who worked as a product packing manager for Express Gifts in Church, had pleaded guilty to 45 specimen charges of possession and making of indecent photographs of children. He was sent on bail to Preston Crown Court for sentence after district judge Paul Firth ruled that his powers of sentence were inadequate.

District judge Firth said there was no suggestion of distribution and that all the evidence showed the activity he undertook was so private that even his wife and children were not aware of what was going on.

An inquest at Burnley Magistrates Court heard that on June 24, Hannah received a letter stating his next court appearance was going to be three days later.

His wife, who had been married to Stewart for 18 years, told the inquest: "He was really worried about the repercussions the whole thing was going to have on me and the boys.

"He told me at the hospital after the first time he took the overdose that he meant to kill himself but he promised me he would never do it again, which is what hurts."

She added: "When he got the letter it had a massive effect on him.

"He went very quiet, he lost his appetite and couldn't eat anything.

"I tried to talk to him about the next court appearance but he was so frightened of what was going to happen to us.

"He wanted us to be able to move on and was sorry for everything and causing so much pain."

Burnley General Hospital pathologist Waleed Salman, said the cause of death was due to an overdose of Co-Proxamol -- prescribed pain killers.

Richard Taylor, Acting East Lancashire Coroner, recorded a verdict of accidental death and said: "He was in a state of terrible confusion and extremely worried about the repercussions of the court case.

"He had just received notice of the next court date.

"He didn't take any drink that night, he went to bed, not too early and took a considerable amount of pills.

"He knew that his wife was coming upstairs. This had happened before and he had been found and taken to hospital. If he had really intended to kill himself he would have done it so that he wouldn't be found. Sadly he wasn't.

"The overdose that he took was so enormous that it killed him very quickly."