A MAN who believed he could hear people talking about him, ran in front of a high speed train after drinking a bottle of whisky, a court heard.

Former supply teacher Adrian Perry of The Quays, Crown Quay Lane, Sittingbourne, died on March 26 at the Goodhughes Foot Crossing at Bobbing, Sittingbourne, when he was hit by the train at just before 6pm.

An inquest into his death, held at Maidstone's county hall, heard divorced Mr Perry had become increasingly concerned people were talking behind his back, after he moved into the hostel for help with his drinking problems.

He had begun to sleep outside in the bushes at night to avoid the voices.

On the day he died, his friend, Kevin Cook, said in a statement, he had phoned him on his mobile at just before 5pm.

He had sounded drunk and had been drinking whisky, which was out of the ordinary. It concerned him because Mr Perry had once told him he believed the best way out for him would be to drink a bottle of whisky and then jump off a railway bridge.

Mr Cook said: "I could hear in the background the sound of trains passing by ever so close. I thought he was at a station somewhere. He said he was on a bridge watching the trains going past.

“I was concerned with mention of the bottle of whisky because he only ever drank red wine. He talked about the voices in his head. I heard a train coming and the phone went dead.

"I had two thoughts in my head, that he had killed himself and the other, he had dropped the phone."

The court heard his GP, Dr Simon Witts of the Grovehurst Medical Centre in Kemsley, said he had described himself as paranoid, but he was not suffering from any significant mental illness.

Train driver Richard Midgley told the court on the day of Mr Perry's death he had been told some other train drivers had reported seeing a man smoking against a tree at the side of the line at the Goodhughes Foot Crossing in Bobbing.

As he approached the crossing, travelling at just under 70 miles an hour, when he saw a man kneeling in the bushes at the side of the track.

He blew the horn and, as he did, the man got up, ran onto the track and threw his hands up. He put on the emergency brake but could not avoid hitting him.

Asked how long the whole incident took, he said: "It seemed like an eternity to me but it was probably only six or seven seconds."

A statement from Home Office pathologist Dr David Rouse, summarised by Mid Kent and Medway coroner Roger Sykes, said Mr Perry died from multiple injuries.

The jury returned a verdict that Mr Perry had taken his own life.