A MAN hanged himself “on the spur of the moment” after a row with his children about who should lay the dinner table, an inquest was told yesterday.
David Masters, the coroner, said the death of David Smart after an argument with his daughters, aged ten and twelve, was “unfathomable”. He added: “The row related to the girls laying the table, or not as the case may be. The following morning, after he had got up, I think this feeling continued in the house. He was in a huff.”
Mr Smart’s widow, Suzanne, told the inquest in Swindon, Wiltshire, that there was a further disagreement that morning, last September 26, over who should make breakfast.
“I thought he was completely overreacting,” she said.
That afternoon, the girls found Mr Smart, 38, hanging from the loft hatch at their home in Old Vicarage Lane, South Marston, Swindon. The inquest was told that Mr Smart had previously threatened his younger daughter that he would leave her mother if she did not behave herself.
Advertisement
Mrs Smart said there had been the “usual ups and downs of family life” during 15 years of marriage, but added: “At work and at home, he was fun-loving and a caring man.”
The coroner was told that Mr Smart had been worried about losing his job as a car panel worker, but had arranged a family holiday for October and was looking forward to a training event in November.
His mother, Christine Smart, said that ten days before he killed himself Mr Smart had been complaining to his brother about having to look after the dog.
“The impression I got was the relationship was a little strained at home,” she said.
Mr Masters recorded a verdict of suicide, adding that Mr Smart had taken his life “while the balance of his mind was disturbed”.