A DRIVING instructor from Southampton hanged himself from a tree in the New Forest, an inquest heard.

Southampton Coroner’s Court heard that Mathew Barry’s body was found by police near a car park in Lyndhurst on August 1.

The police had been called by a member of the public, who had noticed that his car had been parked there for two days.

At the hearing, coroner Keith Wiseman was told that the 44-year-old’s family did not know why he had decided to kill himself.

Recording his verdict, Mr Wiseman said: “Sadly I have no alternative but to record a deliberation that Mr Barry took his own life deliberately, and I am sure the family are left in the air about how it occurred.”