A BRACKNELL woman found her husband of 22 years hanging from their loft after they were forced to sell their home.

Adrian Hall, 54, of Chisbury Close, Bracknell, had confided in his wife Julie that he felt "inadequate as a person" after the pair were forced to move out of their home after financial difficulties, an inquest heard.

On May 1, he had gone to PC World to buy a new laptop for her but the pair returned to the store together after finding it was not right.

When they came home Julie went up to the front bedroom she used as an office to use her new laptop.

She heard the loft door open but assumed her husband was helping to empty it out like they had discussed ahead of their moving out. 

However, after she came out of the bedroom, she saw him leaning against the ladder door.

She told Coroner Peter Bedford that she had rushed to find a pair of scissors to cut him free but was unable to do CPR because of the ladder's positioning.

She had known her husband was "depressed and fed up" at their financial situation and had been signed off work by his GP with depression but had not been prescribed anti-depressants.

She said to the coroner: "He told me he felt inadequate, those were his very words to me. He felt inadequate as a person", to which Peter Bedford responded: "It's a man thing."

A post mortem confirmed that Mr Hall died of asphyxia due to hanging.

Mrs Hall expressed her disbelief as to why her husband had taken his own life, adding: "I can't get my head round it, I've been trying to for months.

"We'd had that bit of rope on a shelf for nine years and it had only been used to hold open the back door when winds were high and suddenly it becomes a focal point of life."

When Mr Bedford suggested that financial problems might have been the cause, Mrs Hall said that the "stress" had all gone by the time of Mr Hall's death.

The coroner recorded a verdict that Mr Hall had taken his own life.