A PENSIONER was found drowned in a canal three years after his friend died in the same spot.

Jack Crowther’s body was found in the frozen waters next to Red Doles Road in Fartown on New Year’s Day.

The 77-year-old, who suffered breathing difficulties, committed suicide after feeling that he could no longer go on living with his illness.

An inquest held at Huddersfield Coroner’s Court heard that the retired industrial cleaner had spent some time in hospital in the days before his death.

Friend Jacquie Lawrence said in a statement that she had known Mr Crowther for years and would go to his home to check on him as he had pneumonia and found it difficult to get around.

She visited his home at Dewhurst Road on New Year’s Eve and found him struggling to breathe and feeling a bit down.

He confided in her that he felt he shouldn’t have been let out of hospital so soon.

“He later called me and told me I was not to worry about him,’’ she said.

“He had given me a key to his house and in case he needed to go back into hospital.”

But on the following day Ms Lawrence noticed that the curtains in her friend’s home were still drawn and she let herself in with the key.

On the living room table she found a hand written note from Mr Crowther addressed to her and another friend, Kelly Smith.

She said: “The note said that he didn’t want to be a burden. It finished with the words ‘in the canal’.

“There was another note with a pile of cash which said ‘split this between you’.

“I was shocked as I did not think Jack wanted to take his own life.

“I can only think that his difficulties in breathing and getting around had been what was upsetting him.”

Ms Lawrence called police who discovered the widower’s body in the stretch of water near to his home.

Pc Matthew Forbes said in a statement he spotted Mr Crowther’s body.

He said his head was fully submerged in the water and had come to rest near a patch of ice which he felt indicated that he had been there for some time.

A statement was also read out from Ms Smith who said that she had spoken to Mr Crowther the day before his death when he told her that he loved her and had been drinking whisky.

She said a friend of his, named Philip Heathcote, had been found dead in the same area of the canal three years earlier.

The 48-year-old drowned as he walked home from the pub during the early hours of Christmas Day.

A coroner said that he slipped and fallen in and recorded a verdict of accidental death.