A 44-YEAR-OLD Great Harwood man struggling to cope with marriage difficulties hanged himself from the four-poster bed at the matrimonial home.

An inquest heard that Mark Newman's estranged wife made the discovery when she returned to the house because she was concerned he was not answering his phone.

And she revealed that just an hour earlier she had asked him to give her another week and she may come back to him.

Michelle Newman told the inquest the marriage had run into problems early in 2006 when Mr Newman became worried about being laid off from his work as an upholsterer.

Because of his anxiety he wasn't sleeping properly and became more and more distant, she said.

There were difficulties in the relationship and on November 20 she left for what she described as a trial separation against her husband's wishes.

She went back to their home in Windsor Road on November 25 to collect some clothes and he told her he had tried to hang himself the previous Monday.

"I thought it was emotional blackmail," said Mrs Newman.

"I said to him to give me another week and then I would be coming back, but he said he didn't know if he could give me a week."

After she left Mrs Newman sent a text message to her husband and then rang both his home phone and his mobile but got no answer.

"I was concerned because he was upset when I left and when I couldn't get an answer I went back about an hour after I had left," she said.

Mrs Newman found her husband hanging by a belt from a bathrobe.

She cut him down and tried to resuscitate him but he was pronounced dead by paramedics.

Recording a verdict that Mr Newman killed himself coroner Michael Singleton said when he suspended himself from the four-poster Mr Newman had no expectation that anyone would be coming to the house.

"It always saddens me in these circumstances that I can't help feeling that if the person could have got over the crisis of the moment things could have been sorted out," said Mr Singleton.