A GARDENER who once worked for comedians Lenny Henry and Dawn French, killed himself by drinking weedkiller, an inquest in Bath heard last week.

Father-of-two John Hale, 52, gulped down the deadly poison then carried on working on a client's garden until he collapsed in pain. He was found by neighbours who heard him cry out in agony three hours after swallowing the Paraquat, a fast-acting herbicide.

Self-employed, Mr Hale worked as a landscape gardener in the area near his home in the village of Coulston, near Westbury. At one time he looked after Lenny Henry and Dawn French's garden in Erlestoke.

The inquest was told the grandfather-of-two suffered a nervous breakdown in 1999 and never fully recovered.

He drank the Paraquat as he worked on a retired Brigadier's garden in Erlestoke in February this year. The Brigadier was abroad on holiday at the time but neighbours Philip and Rosemary Peplar were alerted by Mr Hale's screams three hours after he drank the weedkiller.

They found him collapsed in a flowerbed and he told them: "I have drunk some weedkiller. I am depressed."

He was taken to the Royal United Hospital, Bath where his wife and two children, Ben, 30, and Lucy, 24, kept vigil at his bedside.

Mr Hale was sedated when the pain became too much for him to bear and he died without regaining consciousness on February 11.

Mrs Hale said after his death: "I asked him why he did it and he said he didn't know. He just saw it and drank it."

Avon Coroner Paul Forrest recorded a verdict of misadventure.