A man used a lawnmower to gas himself after his wife told him their marriage was over.

The 44-year-old Goodwick man committed suicide by leaving the mower engine running in the back of his van. He died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Before recording the verdict of suicide, the Pembrokeshire Coroner, Mr Michael Howells, heard at a Milford Haven inquest on Thursday, that Ian Willam Bell, of The Old Post Office, Trefasser, rang his wife on February 10th to say he was coming to see her.

She called the police, who waited in another room as they talked.

After a while the police intervened and found a large quantity of medication in his pockets.

He was taken to see the crisis team at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest, before being taken home, from where he rang his twin sister's home and told his brother-in-law of the breakdown of his marriage.

Receiving no answer when they rang him back, they went to his home at 10.55pm and found the dog barking inside and the back door wide open.

There was a suicide note in the house and police found his body in his van outside the front door with a lawn mower in the rear, its fuel tank empty.

A pathologist gave the cause of death as carbon monoxide poisoning.