A MAN with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder who was Tasered by police after he had cut his wrists and throat died despite their efforts to save him, an inquest heard today (Monday).

Terrence Andrew Bennett, 44, died on October 27, 2016, at his parents' bungalow in Hillwood Close, Warminster. Police officers got there just before midnight and by 12.30am Mr Bennett was dead.

They had responded to a frantic phone call from his mother Mary, who had had to flee her home to a neighbour's to contact them, and arrived to find Mr Bennett bloodstained.

They asked if he was hurt and he said: “I have cut my wrists and throat but have not made a good job of it.”

The inquest heard Mr Bennett was Tasered and then handcuffed. He was bleeding profusely from a cut to his throat, so the cuffs were removed and officers tried to resuscitate him. He died at just after 12.30am.

In the 36 hours before that he had tried to take an overdose and threatened his mother, who tried desperately to get help for him.

On day one of a hearing which follows an Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry into Mr Bennett's death, Wiltshire's assistant coroner Nicholas Rheinberg told a jury that Mr Bennett had been staying at his parents’ bungalow since August that year.

He had been receiving psychiatric treatment for over 20 years, was diagnosed with schizophrenic effective disorder and manic depression, and experienced paranoid thoughts. These included the belief that he was being spied upon and that he could stop world disorders and bring an end to the conflict between Indian and Pakistan.

His mother Mary Bennett noticed a deterioration in his health when he came to live with them and on October 25 felt her son was potentially suicidal.

Explaining what happened then to the jury, Mr Rheinberg said Mrs Bennett stopped her son taking an overdose that night, and when he went to sleep she disposed of his medication.

The next day, October 26, she called the crisis team at Green Lane mental health hospital in Devizes at 7.30am but got no response.

She then called the team at Shearwater Lodge on The Avenue, Warminster, from where he had received medication over the years.

Two nurses from there came out at 4.30pm to speak to Mr Bennett, who had previously been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and was sometimes subject to a community treatment order to go to hospital, to check on his wellbeing.

Around 10pm Mr Rheinberg said Mrs Bennett found her son had cut his wrists. When she tried to call for help he took her mobile phone and the house phone.

Mrs Bennett managed to go to her next-door neighbours, whilst her son was still inside the bungalow, in a desperate attempt to get help.

Before his death, Mrs Bennett said that her son, who took medication but not always as much as he was prescribed to do, had threatened her.

The inquest continues, and is due to last a fortnight.