AN MP is to take up the case of a man who hanged himself after allegedly being "hounded'' by the Government's Child Support Agency.

Stockton South MP Dari Taylor said last night her heart went out to the family of 33-year-old Barry Kenyon, who took his own life four days after receiving a demand from the CSA for £14,000 towards the upkeep of a child he said was not his.

Mrs Taylor said: "This is a very serious tragedy and I am committed to taking this up with gusto. The clear and simple fact is the CSA get it wrong more times than they get it right.

"All they are interested in is not how we can achieve reasonable and loving families but how can we get money out of people.''

Barry's partner, Stockton pub landlady Paula Davies, said she was making an appointment to see the MP.

Paula was adamant that her boyfriend, a joiner with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, hardly knew the mother of the child at the centre of the CSA claim.

"There was no relationship," said Paula, landlady of The Green Tree.

The couple had a daughter - three-year-old Ellie Jane - who Barry told Paula was the only child he had ever fathered.

Before taking his own life, Barry wrote a will leaving all his possessions to Ellie.

But Paula, 34, said: "A block has been put on the will. The solicitors are saying that Ellie is not entitled to anything.

"He (Barry) just wanted Ellie to have the best, everything she could have.

"According to him, Ellie was his only child and he absolutely adored her. She was the apple of his eye.

"It was the CSA who pushed him over the edge. They just hounded him. Something has to be done," she said.

The CSA said it would not comment on individual cases