A YOUNG father of two hanged himself from a swing at the Strand Leisure Park in Gillingham after breaking up with his children's mother, an inquest heard.

Mark Nicholls, 29, was found by a passer-by on the evening of March 1.

Mid Kent and Medway coroner Roger Sykes heard that the landscape gardener had left his mother's house in King Edward Road, Gillingham, and walked the short distance to the recreational ground in Strand Approach Road.

The former heroin addict had been kicked out of the house he shared with his girlfriend Rachel Gladdish in Ordnance Street, Chatham a week before his death after she grew tired of his drug addiction.

In a statement read out at the inquest on Thursday at the Municipal Buildings, Gillingham, Miss Gladdish said she told her boyfriend of five years to confront his addiction to the amphetamine, "speed".

She said: "Since I have known Mark he had been addicted to speed. The speed would keep him awake for a few days then he would sleep for days while 'coming down'. I told him I wanted him to leave and to sort himself out."

Although Mr Nicholls left and went to live with his mother, he returned to the couple's house on February 26 when Miss Gladdish told him their relationship was over for good. She told him she wouldn't stop him from seeing their two children.

She added: "He called to ask if it was over and I said that it was. He said that if we split up he wouldn't want to live. I never thought he would kill himself."

His mother, Christal Nicholls told police the last time she saw her son she had a feeling he would kill himself.

A post-mortem showed there were also no signs of drink or drugs in either his blood or urine.

Coroner Roger Sykes said Mr Nicholls had been "totally affected by the break-up of his relationship with his girlfriend".

He said: "He had a problem with drugs. It is quite true that there were no drugs in his system, which might have been an indication that he was trying to keep off them.

"It is apparent that his mother was expressing the view that he was not the ideal person to have at home. But having said that, there was no reason why he would decide to hang himself that evening."

Verdict: suicide.