A homeless man who was found hanging in a Watford shelter had not meant to take his own life, an inquest concluded.

Robert Wadland, 46, was found by staff in the wardrobe of his room at the Watford New Hope Trust night shelter in Exchange Road at around 9am on September 24 last year with the cord of his tracksuit bottoms around his neck.

He was resuscitated and taken to Watford General Hospital but never regained consciousness, and life-preserving equipment was switched off the following day.

An inquest at Hatfield Coroner’s Court on Tuesday (July 23) heard that Mr Wadland had battled alcoholism and depression for more than a decade and had told several doctors he was having suicidal thoughts.

At the inquest Dr Timothy Robson, his GP since 2005, praised him as "very patient" and revealed he made a great deal of efforts to come to appointments and to seek help.

In the early hours of September 24 police were called to the Watford shelter after Mr Wadland, who had been a carpenter, had barricaded himself in his room.

PC Paul Boutureira, who was called to the home at 3.44am, said: "He said he was under the impression he was going to be ejected, the staff said that wasn’t the case and they had no intention of ejecting him.

"There were no marks anywhere on his body that I could see and there was no indication he had attempted to self harm.

"His morale was quite low and he stated he had an alcohol problem, I asked what we could do to help him but he wasn’t interested in any of that."

Mr Wadland had told staff he wanted to be sectioned and hoped to be admitted to the Shrodells Unit at Watford General Hospital, which specialises in substance misuse and mental health conditions.

Police then left and staff at the shelter continued to check on him every half hour throughout the night and made arrangements for him to be transported to hospital after 9am when the other residents had left.

Peter Lilly, who was working at the shelter on the night of the incident, said Mr Wadland was heard to say "I need help, nobody is going to believe me" and "they are not going to section me".

Mr Lilly added: "He said he wanted to be taken in because he couldn’t stop thinking about killing himself.

"In the morning he was very, very desperate, he didn’t believe people would section him."

On finding Mr Wadland in the wardrobe a few minutes later, staff untied the string and began CPR until the ambulance arrived.

Coroner Edward Thomas said: "Clearly all the staff did everything they could to resuscitate him.

"He knew what he actually wanted to do was to be in hospital.

"I am not sure what would have happened if Robert had gone to hospital but at the time he died I am satisfied he knew the ambulance was on its way.

"I am fairly satisfied he didn’t intend to die.

"I think if he really wanted to die why would he wait until just before the ambulance came."

Mr Thomas recorded a verdict of accidental death.