A RETIRED salesman who hanged himself at his Baxenden home left notes at the front and back doors telling his wife not to go in the house, an inquest in Blackburn heard.

Police who broke in after asking his wife to go to a neighbour's found Derek Bannon on the landing, suspended by a length of electrical cord from the attic.

Assistant deputy coroner John Birch recorded a verdict that Mr Bannon, 59, of Sandybeds Close, took his own life.

The inquest heard that Mr Bannon, who suffered from arthritis in his neck and spine, had retired from work on medical grounds.

He had become depressed and anxious and had worries over his sickness benefit and work pension .

In a statement read out at the inquest, Mrs Diana Bannon, his wife of 36 years, said her husband had been depressed for three to four months.

She had persuaded him to seek help from the doctor who had prescribed anti-depressants and sleeping tablets.

A few weeks before his death on February 6, she had found him asleep at home after he had taken four sleeping tablets and some alcohol. Mrs Bannon said she had driven her husband to the hospital where he was admitted for acute anxiety and depression. She thought what he had done had been "a cry for help".

He began to seem more positive and was allowed to come home. On the day of his death, he was due back at the hospital at 2pm and she had come home from work at 1pm to take him.

When she found the notes, and the doors locked, she knew something was wrong and "he had done something terrible".

A distressed Mrs Bannon told the inquest that on several occasions her husband had said she would be better off without him, but had not actually said he was going to do it.

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