A verdict of suicide was recorded on Devizes man John Galvin who died days after he wrote a letter saying he had been sexually abused as a child. 

The inquest also heard that he and his girlfriend Amy Connor had broken up the week before his death and he had threatened to kill himself.

He was found hanged on April 23 in the outhouse of the family home in Eastleigh Road, Devizes.

Known to his family as "Ginge", he was found dead by his mother Dawn Stickley, with whom he had lived in Devizes since he was 15, days after saying to his ex-girlfriend in a letter that he had been sexually assaulted by a family member when he was a young boy.

Mr Galvin, 27, had recently split from Ms Connor, but told her that if she did not go out on a date with him he would kill himself.

The pair had broken up following a number of rows. After one argument on April 14 last year he ran off with her car and house keys, which she reported to the police.

The inquest in Salisbury heard that on returning home at 1.30am on April 16, Ms Connor was startled to find her ex in her sitting room and had phoned the police.

Later that day, after trying to recover her car and take it home, she found the vehicle would not start as he had removed a fuse.

Summarising her evidence Wiltshire coroner David Ridley said: "In the evening she remembers the doorbell going and that when she got to the door she found a letter had been pushed through the letterbox.

"It was a hand-written letter and she instantly recognised the handwriting. It referred to an allegation of sexual abuse when 'Ginge' was young by a family member.

"He also wrote that he would give her until Saturday, but that if he did not hear from her that he would go up to the nice place in Salisbury Plain that they had been to together, that he would think of the good times and that he would hang himself."

The inquest on February 7 heard how she took the letter to his cousin, who told his family.

On April 21 Mr Galvin turned up at her workplace, against her express wishes. After she contacted the police, officers served him with a harassment notice the next day.

His mother found him hanging less than 24 hours later.

Her statement, which was read to the inquest, said that her daughter Emma has texted her two days earlier, warning her about Mr Galvin's suicide threat. But when she asked him about it he said he was all right, and was angry his former girlfriend had shown the letter to other people.

She found her son's body in the outhouse of her home when she went to let the dog out early on April 23.

"I couldn't believe he'd actually gone and done it," her statement said.

The coroner heard how Mr Galvin regularly used cannabis and cocaine and had been prescribed anti-depressants after complaining to his GP of low moods on April 18, less than a week before his death.

A statement from his cousin Mr Irwin revealed he had spoken to his father the night before his death, who told his son he should have told everyone about the alleged abuse when it happened.

His statement continued: "I remember that John senior said to Ginge that he was an idiot, and that he should have told him at the time what had happened and to stop all the nonsense about him killing himself."

A post-mortem examination carried out by Dr Matthew Flyn gave the medical cause of death as hanging while a toxicology report found Mr Galvin's blood-alcohol level to be 95mg, compared to the legal driving limit of 80mg, alongside levels of cocaine and amitriptyline.

Mr Ridley recorded a verdict of suicide and said: "I am sure that at the time he intended to take his own life."

Mr Galvin's family's efforts to plant a memorial tree in the town of Tidworth, where he used to live, were thwarted by the local council last year, who ruled a plaque could not be put up as he no longer lived in the area.

His uncle, Fred Galvin, a former town councillor in Tidworth, said the family had wanted to remember the 27-year-old with a tree and plaque.

A Tidworth Town Council meeting in July last year it was pointed out that he had not been a resident of Tidworth and the memorial was refused.