A DEPRESSED man killed himself by drinking highly toxic weedkiller.

And the herbicide, called paraquat was so strong that a police officer investigating the death had to be sent to hospital after he sniffed the bottle.

Former Securicor worker Rodney Cox, 60, of Cherrytree Grove, Pinehurst, died on January 21 last year.

A Swindon inquest heard that Mr Cox had called an ambulance at 8.42am and when paramedics arrived at his home they found him lying on his bed with breathing difficulties.

He was taken to Great Western Hospital and was pronounced dead at 4.10pm.

Officers investigating the death that evening found a brown bottle on Mr Cox's bedside table. The label had been torn off.

Detective Inspector Paul Wilson, a crime scene investigator, opened the bottle and immediately started to feel ill and lightheaded and had to go to hospital.

A post-mortem into Mr Cox's death revealed that he had died from weedkiller poisoning.

The inquest heard from social worker Karen Shaw and friend John Young, 55, of Whitworth Road who confirmed that Mr Cox had been depressed.

In recording a verdict of suicide, Wiltshire coroner David Masters, said: "It is plain that Mr Cox intended to take his own life."