AN artist has paid an emotional tribute to her teenage son who died after years struggling with addiction and his mental health.

Alison Lapper’s 19-year-old son Parys was found dead in a room at the Wolsley Hotel in Worthing on August 13 last year.

His medical cause of death was given as respiratory depression, contributed to by a fatal toxicity of heroin.

Ms Lapper, who was born without arms and with shortened legs due to a condition called phocomelia, posed naked while heavily pregnant with Parys in 2000 for a marble sculpture by artist Marc Quinn, for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in London.

At the inquest into Parys’ death, which began today at Crawley Coroner's Court, Ms Lapper described her son as her “miracle millennium baby”.

As coroner’s officer Tony Beldam read from Ms Lapper’s statement to the court, she broke down in tears. 

She wrote: “He was like a whirlwind. He never sat still and never stopped talking.

“Parys had the biggest blue eyes and he was funny, sensitive and loving.

"But everything started to change when he hit his teens.”

The court heard Parys had suffered as a result of bullying and had stopped washing and taking care of himself.

Ms Lapper said: “At first I thought he was being a teenager but after he started smoking cannabis it became clear this was not the case.

"The drugs became stronger and his behaviour became more erratic.”

Parys was referred to child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs) and placed in supported living accommodation to help manage his needs.

He was diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as social phobia and he suffered from panic attacks.

But Ms Lapper said after her son turned 18 there “was no transition from child to adult services” and “nowhere for him to go”.

She said: “Now that Parys was 18 I couldn’t have any say in his care. He was drinking less but still taking drugs, as well as his medication.

“I was getting increasingly worried.”

Parys had been seeing a consultant psychiatrist since September 2018 but was discharged from mental health services in July last year, just weeks before his death.

The court heard he had also been seeing a private psychiatrist in London to access more prescribed medication, and had been ordering medication online in his mother's name.

The inquest is set to continue this week.