A HOTEL manager took his own life amid a police investigation into a "serious" offence.

Christopher Mark Roper, 34, died at his home on Worcester Street, Barrow, on June 5.

Led by assistant coroner Paul O'Donnell, an inquest today at Barrow Town Hall concluded Mr Roper intended to commit suicide, rather than making "a cry for help".

Concerns were raised after he failed to collect wife Michaella from her mother's address. He was found by his mother, Pamela Edmondson, at around 7pm that night.

Mr O'Donnell said: "We've heard he was a bright man and a bubbly kind of character. He hadn't expressed any suicidal thoughts up until a couple of months prior because of the ongoing police investigation. I don't doubt the subject of that laid heavily on his mind.

"I'm sure he did this with the intention of destroying his life, rather than it being a cry for help.

"He thought this through and he knew nobody would stumble across him and he found a gap in the timetable where he would be undisturbed.

"Circumstances like this are awful and there's always a lot of damage left behind. The decision he took was his own and for his own reasons.

"I suspect he may have taken the decision with his family in mind."

Mrs Roper told the inquest her husband, who managed the Hotel Imperial in Barrow, had referenced taking his life months prior. She said: "After the investigation started he said he would be better off if he just took the pressure away from everybody and he wasn't here anymore.

"I thought it was just the heightened emotions of the day. He didn't feel like himself. It was his first encounter with the police."

Cumbria police have refused to disclose the offence and have since dropped proceedings.