A BUSINESSMAN who had expressed suicidal feelings but was not thought to be at risk was found hanged in his Tarporley home.

Michael George Freeman, 47, had a history of depression which seemed to get worse after his son Paul was diagnosed as a manic depressive and his father was found to have terminal cancer.

Mr Freeman, who lived in Rue De Bohars with his wife Laura, his son, and daughter Claire, agreed to seek help for his condition after he was found writing a suicide note.

A Chester inquest heard that on Sunday, April 15 ­ the day before he died ­ Mr Freeman contacted the out-of-hours service at The Health Centre in Park Road, Tarporley.

His GP Dr Robin Gleek said in a statement that Mr Freeman was assessed at Tarporley Cottage Hospital but 'it was thought he was not planning to act on his thoughts'.

The company director was found dead in his home by Mrs Freeman when she returned from a shopping trip in Chester at about 4.30pm.

Two days earlier she discovered her husband drinking whisky and writing a letter, which he showed her.

'I quickly read the letter but didn't take it all in. I realise now he was contemplating suicide,' said Mrs Freeman, in a statement read out at the inquest.

'He threw the letter away and later that evening he did say he wouldn't have done anything and that he would go and see a doctor the following morning about going into hospital.'

But when she returned home on the Monday, Mrs Freeman found the doors to her home dead-locked. She knocked on the door but could get no answer.

She eventually managed to enter the house via an open window and found Mr Freeman hanging through the loft hatch.

Constable Timothy John Harthill, who attended the scene, said there was no indication of third party involvement in Mr Freeman's death.

A post-mortem examination revealed Mr Freeman died as a result of asphyxia due to hanging.

Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said: 'It was clear Mr Freeman was going through an agonising period in his life.

'It is clear that in the letter to his wife and to the doctor he expressed suicidal thoughts and on the day in question I am satisfied it was Mr Freeman alone who hanged himself in his house in the circumstances that have been described.'

Verdict: Suicide.