A DEPRESSED man who killed himself on a train track in Horwich should have been admitted to hospital for help, his mother told an inquest jury.

Alice Martin said she had asked for her 46-year-old son, Paul Martin, to be hospitalised just days before his death in November last year.

Mr Martin, who had a history of depression and bouts of binge drinking, walked on to the track at Horwich Parkway station and lay down on the line.

He was hit by a train and died at the scene.

The father-of-two, who lived with his parents in Aspull, was described as a talented and clever man who had been plagued by mental illness and would, on occasions, drink to excess.

Just days before he died Mr Martin had an appointment with consultant psychiatrist Dr Basil Maragakis, which his mother also attended.

She said: “Paul needed care and that is what I was asking for and if Dr Maragakis had listened to me that day I’d still have my son and we wouldn’t be here.” But Dr Maragakis said he did not see anything in Mr Martin’s behaviour that would lead him to believe he should be in hospital.

On the day he died — Sunday, November 25, last year — Mr Martin was due to attend a meeting in Manchester as part of a drink-driving court order.

His father left him at the train station in Wigan but four hours later Mr Martin got off a train at Horwich Parkway, walked to the end of the platform and on to the track.

In a statement read out in court, train driver Neil Davis said he saw a man on the track but it was impossible to stop in time — the train was travelling at 75mph.

Pathologist Dr David Bisset said Mr Martin had died from decapitation.

Tests for alcohol showed he had consumed just under three times the legal limit for driving.

The jury returned a verdict that Mr Martin “took his own life while suffering depression”.

A family member, speaking after the inquest, said: “Paul had a sad end to his life but he was, and still is, much loved by his family and we will never stop missing him.”