A man told his girlfriend he had ‘a rubbish birthday’ and then killed himself in the next room, an inquest heard.
Ian Harrison and Linda Ryan had been celebrating his 39th birthday when they got into a row about their dinner in which he said ‘I might as well hang myself’.
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Hungerford resident Harrison, who had drank eight cans of cider, then took his own life.
At his inquest the coroner ruled that Mr Harrison had not intended to kill himself, saying instead that his death might have been unintentional.
In a statement to the inquest at Reading, Berkshire, Ms Ryan said: ‘My partner and I lived with my daughter. At around 4.30pm on September 7 – his birthday – Ian and I had a trivial argument about what I was cooking for dinner.
‘He ate by himself in the living room and at around 7 o’clock I put my daughter to bed and went into my bedroom.
‘At around 7.15pm Ian came into the bedroom and said it had been a rubbish birthday and “I might as well kill myself”. The comment went over my head, he had made comments like that before.’
Ms Ryan then discovered the body two hours later and frantically tried to get help to revive her boyfriend. Paramedics tried in vain to save Mr Harrison.
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Berkshire Coroner Peter Bedford also heard from neighbours how Mr Harrison ‘liked a drink’ and had attempted suicide before, the Mirror reported.
Mr Bedford concluded: ‘From what I have heard and reasons discussed – and applying the test of beyond reasonable doubt – given the volatile character, it being his birthday and not having a good day, I will record that Ian Christopher Harrison died as a consequence of his own actions but requirements of suicide were not met.’
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