A MAN who was found hanged in woodland behind his house took his own life, a coroner has ruled

An inquest heard how Mark Davies, 48, had a history of mental health issues and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and drug-induced psychosis and had been liaising with the community mental health team since 2006.

Mr Davies was most recently being treated for emotionally unstable personality disorder.

Mr Davies, who had been suffering with mental health issues since the age of 17, made previous attempts at suicide, the most recent being in August 2017 when he had to be talked down from Accrington Viaduct by British Transport Police officers.

The inquest, held at Blackburn Town Hall, was told Mr Davies that Mr Davies went missing from his home in Rothwell Avenue, Accrington, for the final time at 11pm on Wednesday, August 2.

A wide-scale search of East Lancashire was launched by police, mountain rescue volunteers, police dogs, the police helicopter and a search adviser. The team searched a number of locations, including Hoghton Tower, while Mr Davies’s family searched the area around Darwen Tower.

Police found him hanged at around 6pm on August 5 on the second search of the woodland behind his home.

Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Bithell said: “There was nothing to suggest anybody else had been involved or Mark had been hurt or harmed in any way.

“We can only do our best. I am devastated we didn’t find him before it came to this conclusion.”

Charlotte Wardrobe, who was Mr Davies’s mental health care co-ordinator since 2016, said he had been attending a weekly life skills course to gain coping skills to cope with the stresses in his life and regularly engaged with the service.

But he had stopped taking his medication three days before he went missing.

Mr Davies’s stepfather Kevin Westwell said he had seen Mr Davies walking in Accrington three weeks before his death and he couldn’t sense anything untoward.

Mr Westwell said: “I didn’t recognise him. He looked so well. So happy.”

Mr Davies’s mother Barbara Westwell said: “He got these things in his head that he had to kill himself.

“Why did he do it at the end? He was perfectly all right. I can’t understand why. It’s a horrible thing.”

Recording a conclusion of suicide, coroner Richard Taylor said Mr Davies was ‘much loved’ and ‘much missed’.

Mr Taylor added: “We can’t ever say why somebody has done what they have done. People can try to help him but at the end of the day you can’t answer that question.

“What he has done is a deliberate act.”

I have no alternative to to make a conclusion of suicide.”