Father, 46, 'could not take rejection'

The body of 46-year-old George Marshall was found by son Shane hanging from the stairway banister by a stretch of blue nylon cord.

An inquest, held at Chippenham Magistrates' Court on Friday, May 10, heard how paramedics and police were called to the house in Heathershaw on March 29.

Hanging next to the body of Mr Marshall was an electric flex which police believe was used for a previous suicide attempt.

Notes and letters to family members and former girlfriends were left on a lounge table.

Police seized two letters for evidence but failed to hand in two more which Wiltshire coroner David Masters is now demanding to see.

Shane Marshall, of Brookmead, Southwick, found his father's body after breaking into his home just after midnight.

He said his father "didn't take rejection well" and had been dumped by his former married girlfriend, who picked her children over him.

Mr Marshall had twice tried to take his own life by downing a cocktail of pills and repeatedly told his son he wanted to "tie a rope round his neck and a lamppost and drive off".

Coroner Mr Masters heard how the collapse of his marriage 13 years ago, the death of his mother and dramatic breakdown of his latest affair finally sent Mr Marshall over the edge.

Mr Masters said the jilted father had a blighted and turbulent love life.

He said: "He is a man who did not suffer rejection lightly.

"Letters I have seen confirm that he was unlucky in love.

"He had said he was going to kill himself and tried on two previous occasions to do so. On this last occasion he apparently had been successful using a rope."

A postmortem examination, carried out by pathologists at Salisbury District Hospital, found Mr Marshall died from multiple neck fractures.

The inquest was adjourned for the two missing suicide notes to be handed in to Mr Masters.

Police officers handed the two vital letters back to Mr Marshall's son at the scene instead of keeping them as evidence.