A SOUTH Lakeland father-of-two found hanged in the garage of his home committed suicide, an inquest has heard.

The body of Andrew Faulkner, 47, of Woodlands Close, Endmoor, was discovered by police after his wife, Mary, had reported him missing. Also in the garage was a note in his handwriting.

The hearing was told that Mr Faulkner had left the house after having a row with his son on Saturday January 23, and police were contacted after he had not returned home two days later.

Speaking at the inquest, Mrs Faulkner said: "We got up as usual on the Saturday and Andrew went to the kitchen to do some baking and asked our son to walk the dog.

"I was in the lounge and I spoke to our son about school and going to university. Andrew had a thing about how long our son spent on the internet and came in shouting about how he had to do everything.

"He thought the dog hadn't been walked because our son was on the internet. He didn't realise that we were talking about university. Andrew went out as he often would to calm down."

It was not unusual for Mr Faulkner to leave the house to calm down after a row, however Mrs Faulkner started to worry after he had been away for two nights.

When police arrived at the house on Monday January 25 they forced their way into the garage and found Mr Faulkner. He was taken to hospital by ambulance and pronounced dead there.

Mr Faulkner was a full-time carer for his wife, who suffers from cerebral palsy. He had been in contact with doctors trying to get some help with this but was told none was available.

Assistant coroner Robert Chapman told the inquest: "It was clear that he was having some difficulty in his role as carer. He spoke to the doctors about that and it was on his mind.

"He had also had a row based on a misunderstanding with his son on the Saturday morning. The evidence shows that he meant to kill himself."

The verdict given was that Mr Faulkner died by hanging and that it was suicide.