A YOUNG Crewe man took his own life after writing farewell letters to his friends and family.

Patrick McEvoy, aged 27, of Prunus Road, penned the notes on November 27 last year before hanging himself with a towrope suspended from the loft space.

His body was found by his uncle Raymond Powell who, finding the door bolted from the inside when he returned home, forced his way inside concerned for Patrick's safety.

At an inquest into the death, held yesterday in Crewe, he described how he had searched the house and found Patrick's body hanging from the landing.

He told the hearing how he had no idea what to do and had screamed before running out of the house, where he alerted a neighbour who called for an ambulance.

He said that Patrick had been 'incredibly depressed' recently and had been talking of leaving the country to join the Foreign Legion.

Patrick's mum Carol told coroner Dr Janet Napier how he was very active as a child and was expelled from school at the age of five.

She said: "If I took him in the front door he would be out the back, he just wanted to be with his mates.

"I would be in the headmaster's office and he would be outside, but when I came out he was gone. He was very fast on his feet.

"He spent more time in prison or on remand, so this is not an unusual place for me."

She told how a few days before his death he was very upset because he could not get a job.

She added: "That night he had put arms around me and cried. He asked me, 'will you forgive me if I do something?' - I thought he meant he was going to fight or something.

"He was so tired of fighting his mate's battles and tired that he could not get a job.

"The probation was on his back. And he was fed up of his name - because his name was McEvoy he got bullied a lot."

Patrick's former partner and mother of his son, Emma Moorish said that when she had last seen him he had told her he was thinking of joining the Foreign Legion.

And in a statement his half sister Lola Woodbine said she had been aware of occasions in the past when he had attempted to take his own life.

She told how in the last few months he had taken to watching 'dark horror and death-type videos'.

Recording a verdict that Patrick McEvoy had taken his own life, Dr Napier said: "Patrick had always been a bit of an individual. But he was obviously a little troubled.

"We know from the letters and things that he did appear to be planning this. It is very sad."