A BUILDER was discovered dead by his wife at their home, an inquest heard.

Rachel Scott found her husband James Cornthwaite, 36, hanging in the garage of their Denby Dale home after he disappeared following a night out.

The hearing, held in Huddersfield yesterday, heard that the couple had been together since they were 17.

They had three children and Mr Cornthwaite set up his own business as a builder in April 1999.

Mrs Scott said in a statement that on January 2 she went to work, leaving her husband at home with their children.

Soon after their daughter phoned her to say that he wasn’t feeling well. Mr Cornthwaite saw a doctor who couldn’t find anything wrong with him, but Mrs Scott said he became worried and was concerned for her and the children.

She said that the day before she found her husband dead, they had argued over a new games console that the couple had bought for their children.

He later said he was going on a night out with a friend, but when he failed to return the next day on January 7 his wife became worried. She then discovered him hanging in the garage at their home on Rockwood Rise and he was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

Coroner Roger Whittaker said Mr Cornthwaite took his own life, but because he feared being ill, he did so whilst the his mind was disturbed.