A POLICE officer who cut down and saved a 23-year-old Accrington man who tried to hang himself in April last year could do nothing to help when the same man hanged himself on New Year's Day.

An inquest heard that Martin Cooke, who had a history of depression, was found by a friend hanging from the bannister at his home.

And the first police officer on the scene, Sgt David Clarke, revealed that he had also been first there in April when Mr Cooke had sent a text message to a friend saying that he intended to kill himself.

The inquest heard that Mr Cooke, of Annie Street, had started to have problems with depression when he was about 13 and a schoolfriend died. As he got older he started to have mood swings and his mother, Patricia Cooke, said he could go from being ecstatic to extremely low without reason.

The inquest was told that as well as trying to hang himself in 2003 Mr Cooke had also taken 60 ecstasy tablets and ended up in hospital.

He had asked his mum why she had "let them bring me back".

Emma Carter told the inquest she had known Martin for about 15 years and they had started going out in November. They met up on New Year's Eve and were in a club called Opium when there was an incident involving a girl called Holly, who was an ex-girlfriend of Mr Cooke's.

She called Miss Carter names and a male was abusive towards Mr Cooke. They left the club and went back to Miss Carter's home by which time he was "in a state".

Miss Carter was talking to her boyfriend and trying to bring him round when he received a text message from Holly. It read "Top yourself he he".

"I just thought she was an ex-girlfriend," said Miss Carter. "Whenever he was down she was always there for him."

At about 4am Mr Cooke decided he wanted to go home. At 4.45am he rang Miss Carter and said he had trashed his house. She tried to persuade him to come back to her house but he said he wanted to be on his own. The following morning a friend went round and raised the alarm after finding Mr Cooke hanging from the banister.

Medical cause of death was given as hanging and coroner Michael Singleton recorded a verdict that Mr Cooke had killed himself.