A WIFE and her one-year-old son found her husband hanging from their staircase when they arrived home from a Christmas drink with family, an inquest heard.

Glenn David Harton, 42, of Main Street, Fulford, York, was found hanging by a dog lead, by his wife Barbara and their 15-month-old son Liam on December 27, last year.

Mrs Harton told an inquest into his death that the couple had argued earlier that day and Mr Harton had threatened to leave her, asking for his passport and saying he would go abroad.

She said: "He used to get jealous when I went out - he didn't think I would just go out with friends.

"But I understood it because his first wife had left him for another man."

She said her husband, a newspaper worker, had been drinking regularly for a few months before his death and said he needed it to help him sleep.

Tests showed that Mr Harton had drunk the equivalent of 12 measures of whisky or six pints of beer on the day of his death.

Mrs Harton said that on December 27, she had left with her son to meet some of her relatives for a drink and when she got back she found the door unlocked.

"I sent my little boy in first and he shouted 'Daddy'," she said.

She followed him in and saw her husband hanging from the banister. He had not left a note and she told York coroner, Mr Donald Coverdale, he had not tried to hurt himself before while she knew him.

"I don't think he intended it, I don't know if he was trying to scare me or if it was a cry for help," she said.

Recording an open verdict Mr Coverdale said it was impossible to say without doubt whether Mr Harton had meant to take his own life.

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