A man found his colleague dead after he went to look for him when he didn’t return from his break, an inquest heard.

John Hunter, from Twydall, Gillingham, had been working at a car showroom on Medway City Estate when he was found hanged.

Gavin Badrick, who had been working at WJ King Vauxhall with Mr Hunter on Sunday, June 2, called an ambulance but he was declared dead at the scene.

An inquest into the 67-year-old’s death at the Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone heard how Mr Hunter had suffered depression but was not on any medication for this.

Mr Hunter - who worked part-time as a driver and cleaner at the showroom - had been referred to talking therapies by his doctor and had reported low moods and not wanting to go to work for years.

In a statement, his wife Sharon said he had gone through a particularly low mood after his prized vintage car was damaged in a flood in May 2018.

The father-of-one gave no indication that he intended to take his own life, and his wife said the only thing that aroused suspicion was how, after his death, she found his phone and keys which were left behind at his home in Woodchurch Crescent, Twydall.

Assistant coroner Sonia Hayes concluded Mr Hunter’s death was suicide, but it may well be he had acted “impulsively.”

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