A BUILDER from Witchford took his own life the day after Valentine s Day, an inquest heard on Wednesday. Barry Watson, from Orton Drive, had been drinking heavily the night before and failed to turn up to meet his friend Jake Scott-Paul, the inquest was

A BUILDER from Witchford took his own life the day after Valentine's Day, an inquest heard on Wednesday.

Barry Watson, from Orton Drive, had been drinking heavily the night before and failed to turn up to meet his friend Jake Scott-Paul, the inquest was told.

Mr Watson, who was 34, was drinking in the Village Inn in Witchford and was taken home by Mr Scott-Paul who stayed to chat with him.

He told the coroner that after chatting to Mr Watson he seemed to be in a better frame of mind.

"I never would have left him if he had not been," Mr Scott Paul said.

He returned to the house the following morning after receiving a text message from Watson's former partner Emma Warren, with whom he had a son, which concerned him. He found Mr Watson hanging from the loft hatch in the spare room. A bottle of vodka which Mr Scott Paul had put away the night before lay empty in the kitchen.

Miss Warren said in a statement that she woke up on the morning of February 15 to a text message from her partner of 10 years, and immediately called police.

Officers went to Orton Drive at 7.25am and were unable to get into the house, but met a neighbour, who told them Mr Watson often left early to go to work. His black truck was not outside the house so officers left to make inquiries at Watson's workplace in Girton, Cambridge.

Mr Watson's body was eventually discovered at around 9.15am by Mr Scott Paul.

Recording a verdict of death by hanging, coroner William Morris passed his condolences on to the assembled family and friends.