Welshampton drink problem man hanged himself after row with wife

Nov 20 2008 by Andrew Bowan, Whitchurch Herald

A WELSHAMPTON man hanged himself after a drinking bout, a Shrewsbury inquest heard last Wednesday.

The binge followed an `altercation’ at home which led his wife to drive to her son’s home, the hearing heard.

A verdict that he killed himself was returned by coroner John Ellery on 68-year-old Malcolm Walters of St Michael’s Green, who was found by his son hanging in the garage of his home on August 5 this year.

PC Constable Stephen Loveridge of Ellesmere said a police investigation concluded that there were no suspicious circumstances and that no third party was involved in Mr Walters’ death.

The coroner read a statement from the dead man’s widow, Mrs Vera Walters, who said the couple were married in Dartford and moved to Shropshire in 1978.

It said that early on in the marriage, it was clear that Malcolm “liked a drink”. But it was not until the early 1990s that she realised he had a drink problem and that alcohol had become a large part of his life.

He’d lost his driving licence through drink but would not accept that he had a problem. When not in drink, he was a different person.

On August 4, problems arose and she felt she needed to get out of the house.

She went in to Ellesmere shopping and for a walk along the canal and ended up at her son’s home nearby.

In a statement from the dead man’s son Barry Walters, he described finding his father hanging in the garage at his home.

He said he knew that his father drank a lot and this had led to problems at home. He tried to raise this with his father who “didn’t want to know”.

PC Loveridge said he found half a bottle of brandy in the garage close to where Mr. Walters was found but Mr Walters left no note indicating suicide.