A man who hanged himself in his room at the Lawrenny Castle Hotel in Neyland had suffered from mental health problems an inquest heard today (Thursday).

Mark Raymond Saunders had lived with his parents for most of his life. Over the three years before his death his family noticed that his mental health had started to deteriorate. They noticed an increase in his consumption of alcohol and pain killers.

Over this period there were also "family incidents" which required police intervention.

In 2009 Mr Saunders tried to take an overdose and ended up in Withybush Hospital. Later that year he voluntarily admitted himself to Bronglais Hospital, discharging himself on November 4th 2009.

On November 7th Mr Saunders' sister contacted the police, she was concerned about a message Mr Saunders had left on their father's answer phone the night before.

Their father had not listened to the message as he had been in bed. He suspected that it had been left by Mr Saunders, despite being forbidden to contact his family as part of his bail conditions.

The next morning the father asked his daughter to come and listen. The content of the message was not read out at the inquest.

In a statement, Mr Saunders' neighbour at the Lawrenny Castle Hotel, Carl Chapman, said that he had heard heavy furniture being moved around Mr Saunders' room at 5.30am on the day after the message was left.

When he went for a shower at 8.30am he saw material that looked like "a sock or something" over the top of his neighbour's door.

He said he had thought nothing of it as Mr Saunders "was always doing strange things".

Mr Saunders did not attend the police station that day, which was a condition of his bail. Police went to the Lawrenny Castle Hotel and found him hanged behind the door of his room.

A post mortem report concluded that the cause of death was hanging. Pembrokeshire coroner, Mark Layton, recorded a narrative verdict, saying that Mr Saunders died of self-administered asphyxiation.