A LYMINGTON man hanged himself in his son’s back garden instead of facing the courts having being arrested days previously for unknown offences.

The body of Peter Dunn was found in the back garden by neighbour Kelvin Drake.

Mr Drake cut down the 71-year-old and performed CPR until paramedics arrived but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Two days previously,the handyman had been arrested for a series of unknown offences and released on bail.

Bail conditions stipulated that Mr Dunn stay at the home of his son, Anthony Dunn, at Gilpin Close, Pilley.

On returning home from a day out, Anthony Dunn found a note on the front door of his house warning to keep the children out of the back garden, and another on the dining room table in which his father said that he was sorry, but that he couldn’t face a trial.

A toxicology report revealed Mr Dunn had been drinking but was not intoxicated at the time of his death.

Senior Coroner Grahame Short said it was not his place to comment on the offences that Mr Dunn had been accused of and that no evidence had been submitted to state what they were, but it was his job to consider what effect his arrest and the thought of a subsequent trial had on Mr Dunn.

“I believe that he may have drunk some alcohol to give him some Dutch courage to make the decision that he did.”

Mr Short concluded that Mr Dunn’s death was the result of suicide.