A British man who suffered from locked-in syndrome has died “peacefully at home”, days after losing a legal bid to end his life of “pure torture”, his lawyers said yesterday.

I am saddened that the law wants to condemn me to a life of increasing indignity and misery

Tony Nicklinson, 58, suffered rapidly deteriorating health during the last few days after contracting pneumonia. Family lawyer Saimo Chahal said: “His wife Jane told me that Tony went rapidly downhill over last weekend, having contracted pneumonia.

“He had made an advance directive in 2004, refusing any life-sustaining treatment and also refused food from last week.”

Mr Nicklinson was left paralysed by a catastrophic stroke while on a business trip to Athens in 2005.

On August 16, he lost a court bid to end his life after High Court judges unanimously agreed that it would be wrong to depart from a precedent that equates voluntary euthanasia with murder.

After the ruling, Mr Nicklinson broke down in tears, saying he was “devastated” by the decision.

A statement from one of Mr Nicklinson’s daughters on his Twitter account read: “You may already know, my Dad died peacefully this morning of natural causes. He was 58.”

A later message from his family read: “Thank you for your support over the years. We would appreciate some privacy at this difficult time. Love, Jane, Lauren and Beth”.

In a statement issued by his lawyer after the ruling last week, Mr Nicklinson said: “I thought that if the court saw me as I am, utterly miserable with my life, powerless to do anything about it because of my disability then the judges would accept my reasoning that I do not want to carry on and should be able to have a dignified death.

“I am saddened that the law wants to condemn me to a life of increasing indignity and misery.”

Factbox on the condition

• People with locked-in syndrome are usually completely paralysed and are unable to speak or move. However, sufferers can generally move their eyes.

• Patients can communicate by blinking or using special eye movement technology to interact using computers. Software converts his eye movement into the letters of the alphabet and in turn into words and speech.

• Sufferers are conscious and can think and reason.

• The disorder can follow a traumatic brain injury, such as a massive stroke. It can also be caused by diseases of the circulatory system, damage to nerve cells or medication overdose.

• Although there is no cure, therapy such as functional neuromuscular stimulation can sometimes benefit victims by activating some of the paralysed muscles.

• The biggest survey of people with the condition, published last year, found that the majority of them are happy. The longer somebody has had locked-in syndrome, the more likely they are to report happiness – suggesting they adapt to life with the condition, according to French research.