A HAULAGE contractor gassed himself in a bedroom using a petrol generator after working long hours at his business, an inquest was told.

Ian Newbould closed the windows and doors of his home in Harrison Street, Barnoldswick, put a pair of jeans across the bottom of the bedroom door and started up the generator before lying down on the bed.

He was found by his wife, Jayne, when she returned home from work and smelled fumes inside the house, the hearing at Nelson Town Hall yesterday was told.

Mrs Newbould said her 35-year-old husband had started his own haulage business 12 months ago and it was going well. But the pressure of work took its toll.

"He was absolutely exhausted," said Mrs Newbould. "There were not enough hours in a day. He was so tired. He was down."

The inquest heard Mr Newbould had tried to take his own life six years ago by attaching a pipe from the exhaust of the car and running it into a vehicle.

He visited his doctor who prescribed medication to try and help him.

Mrs Newbould told how she had left home in the morning to go to work. "He said 'look after yourself' as I was going out," she said.

She returned home around 2pm. "I got half way up the stairs and I could smell fumes.

"I shouted for him. I went in our bedroom and he wasn't there. I went in the spare room. He had put a pair of jeans across the bottom of the door."

Dr Zafar Qureshi said the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning.

East Lancashire coroner David Smith recorded a verdict that Mr Newbould killed himself whilst depressed and told Mrs Newbould: "It's quite clear from the evidence that something was concerning your husband."

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