A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD boy discovered his father hanging by a washing line in the back yard of their Blackburn home, an inquest was told.

Iqbal Musa Mohmed had a long history of depression and had tried to hang himself previously, the inquest heard.

Mrs Latifa Mohmed said her husband had changed after going to India in 1989 to visit his sick grandmother. While he was there she died and after that he became very withdrawn. She said Mr Mohmed, 35, didn't want to know his children and would move into a separate room at the family home in Dunsop Street if anyone joined him.

She told how he told her he wanted to die and at one time she was so concerned that she started hiding knives and sharp objects from him. He was admitted to Queen's Park Hospital on several occasions.

Not long before his death Mr Mohmed had booked a trip to India and his wife said he seemed to be looking forward to that.

On 23 December she said her husband seemed distant and he did not speak to her all day. She went to bed and was woken the following morning by her son Tausif, 7, who was due to go to mosque.

They went downstairs and Mrs Mohmed assumed her husband was in the back yard having a cigarette. She sent the boy out and he returned moments later in a state of shock, unable to say what he had seen.

Mr Mohmed had cut a length of washing line before hanging himself from the fence around the yard. He was already dead when neighbours cut him down.

The medical cause of death was given as hanging and coroner Michael Singleton returned a verdict that Mr Mohmed killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed.