A MAN depressed about the breakdown of his marriage killed himself in a massive drinking binge after leaving his estranged wife a voicemail saying: "Right, you have got your own way, you'll find out tomorrow."

An inquest heard that notes written before his death indicated that Graham Shaun Kinniry, 46, had fully intended to kill himself, although possibly by some other means.

The inquest was told that Mr Kinniry was found in the garage of his home in East Park Avenue, Darwen, with open tins of paint and other items arranged around him.

He had earlier sent his estranged wife the e-mail saying he would always love her and a voice message, timed at 3am.

Carol Kinniry told the inquest that she and her husband had married in 1977 and had three children.

She said financial problems had caused the marriage to fail and had also led to her husband drinking heavily and becoming depressed. There had been an incident in April when he had tried to cause himself harm.

Mrs Kinniry said she had spoken to her husband on the phone the night before he died and he had seemed fine.

The messages he sent later that night were not unusual.

"He sent me e-mails and voice mails virtually every day," said Mrs Kinniry. "He hadn't come to terms with the breakdown of the marriage "

She said her husband had been drinking heavily for a long time but this had become even worse over the last three or four months.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Mohammed Latif confirmed that he had been treating Mr Kiniry for depression. He said that when the case was last reviewed in June Mr Kinniry's depression appeared to have lifted. Coroner Michael Singleton said that following the discovery of Mr Kinniry's body it had been believed that he had taken a quantity of tablets.

"In fact he died of alcohol toxicity and the effect that had on his liver," said Mr Singleton. "Whatever tablets he had taken had not been absorbed into his blood stream."

The post-mortem examination revealed a blood alcohol level four and a half times the legal drink drive limit and minimal levels of prescribed medication.

The medical cause of death was steatohepatitis which is a liver condition relating to repeated alcohol abuse.