THE treasurer of a school’s parent teachers’ association killed himself after getting in a muddle with his documents, an inquest has been told.

Former Swale councillor John Clark, 62, died when he was hit by a train at a pedestrian crossing next to the A249 at Bobbing, a day before he was due to go on holiday.

Mr Clark, who was the Liberal Democrat ward member for Grove for 10 years until 2002, was involved in numerous local organisations, including Highsted Grammar School’s PTA.

An inquest at Gillingham was told that fellow committee members had become uneasy when Mr Clark failed to turn up to meetings and documents had gone missing. The day before he killed himself on July 3, two colleagues visited him at his Auckland Drive home in Sittingbourne.

Mid Kent and Medway coroner Roger Sykes said: “It was a situation of muddle and there is no suggestion of criminal activity.”

Train driver Roger Matthews, who retired through ill health following the tragedy, said: “The line is straight where it happened and I had sounded my whistle as I was doing about 80mph.

“I could see a man standing at the side of the crossing as though he was waiting for me to pass. But then he just ran straight out and stood directly in front of the train.”

Mr Clark’s widow, Margaret, said: “John was very supportive of Highsted School where he was well liked and respected. We had no financial problems, but in the weeks up to his death there were an increasing number of phone calls from members of the school’s PTA.”

Mrs Clark said her husband, who had not attended a meeting for about a year and was due to step down as treasurer at the end of the year, gave the PTA members some documents and said he would hand over the rest the following morning.

Pauline Goddard was due to take over as treasurer. Mr Clark was teaching her about the books.

She added: “A few cheques had not been found as well as other documents and we needed to get it sorted before our annual meeting. We did not say to him we were going to the police.”

The jury returned a suicide verdict.