A NORTH-EAST man hanged himself only days after receiving a £14,000 demand from the Child Support Agency (CSA), an inquest heard yesterday.

Officials last night declined to comment on the death of Teesside joiner Barry John Kenyon who was found dead at The Green Tree pub, in Stockton.

Mr Kenyon's live-in girlfriend, Paula Davies, told the inquest that the CSA had not proved he was the father of the child concerned.

She said: "He had previous relationships, but nothing had been proved that it was his child. But, he had been receiving letters about this.

"He had a little bit of debt. He was worried about the CSA letters but we coped: we were coping all right."

Deputy Teesside Coroner Gordon Hetherington heard how the last CSA letter arrived only four days before the 33-year-old killed himself.

Ms Davies said: "It was telling him to pay up."

Hours before, Mr Kenyon had been at a stag party and his partner at a hen party, to do with the same wedding.

They met up in a nightclub, Mr Kenyon returning to the pub first.

He had the equivalent of six pints of beer or nine shorts to drink.

Before hanging himself, Mr Kenyon scrawled a hurried will on a piece of A5 paper torn from a spinal pad.

He left all his possessions to his daughter from another relationship.

Mr Kenyon was eventually found by his brother Francis Kenyon, a serving soldier, hanging in the stairwell of The Green Tree pub in the Ramsgate area of Stockton. He tried to revive him.

He cut his brother down with a kitchen knife and laid him on the floor of the front room.

"I did not feel a pulse so I started CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation)," said the trained first aider.

"My girlfriend - while I was upstairs - phoned for an ambulance."

He told the coroner how his brother had telephoned him twice earlier this year saying no one loved him and threatening to kill himself.

The inquest also heard medical evidence that Mr Kenyon had taken an overdose of paracetamol after splitting up with his then girlfriend in 1991.

The overdose was insufficient to kill him and was regarded by doctors as a cry for help.

The proceedings were repeatedly interrupted by Mr Kenyon's uncle, Paul, shouting: "The CSA killed him. He did not kill himself, it was the CSA."

Mr Hetherington's verdict was that Barry Kenyon killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed.

A spokeswoman for the CSA said last night: "We cannot comment on individual cases. Every suicide is a tragedy.

"The Department for Work and Pensions has the deepest sympathy for the families of those who have taken their own lives.

"Many factors lead to suicide and it's not reasonable to try and identify single causes. Men whose family relationships have broken down are acknowledged to be a particularly vulnerable group."