A MAN with a long history of depression was found hanging from the staircase by his wife, an inquest heard.
Russell Bray, 50, of Fleminghouse Lane, Waterloo, got up at midnight for a drink and was found dead the next morning.
The Huddersfield hearing was told how Mr Bray, a self-employed pest controller, had seen his business decline in recent years.
He was being treated for depression and saw a community psychiatric nurse once a month.
Shortly before his death he had become more positive and his wife Kim thought his condition was improving.
Coroner’s officer Mrs Fiona Turner told how Mr and Mrs Bray went to bed at 11pm on April 27 this year.
Her husband seemed in good spirits.
In a statement, Mrs Bray said her husband got up for a drink at midnight, as he often did, and she fell asleep.
She was up early the next morning and went downstairs to find her husband’s body hanging on the staircase.
Paramedics were called and Mr Bray was declared dead.
A note was found on a kitchen worktop and another one later in his office.
A post-mortem examination, carried out by Dr Richard Knights, found that Mr Bray died from asphyxia due to hanging.
Assistant deputy coroner Dr Dominic Bell, recording a suicide verdict, said it was clear Mr Bray had a long history of depressive illness.
He said Mr Bray had reached a point where “life was no longer worth living, ” though this had not been due to any particular event.
