A 32-YEAR-OLD father hanged himself after his girlfriend told him the baby she was expecting might not be his, a Bolton inquest was told.

Kevan Bradley-Schofield was found hanging from a loft hatch by a relative who forced his way into his home in Tintern Avenue, Tonge Moor, last December.

Mr Bradley-Schofield's mother, Wilhelmina Schofield, told the Bolton inquest that he had had a volatile relationship with his pregnant partner Stephanie Lawson.

Mrs Schofield, of Morris Street, Radcliffe, said her son was very distressed before his death because he had been told by Miss Lawson, his partner of eight months, that he might not be the father of the baby she was carrying.

Mrs Schofield said he was also upset by Miss Lawson's hostility to him seeing his nine-year-old son by a previous girlfriend.

She said that a couple of weeks before his death, Mr Bradley-Schofield had taken an overdose of pills, although he had not needed hospital treatment.

Mrs Schofield said: "Stephanie and Kevan's relationship was volatile. She didn't like him having anything to do with his son Grant."

She said her son seemed to be "all right" following the overdose and said the hanging was totally out of character with anything her son had done or said before.

Miss Lawson told Bolton Coroner Jennifer Leeming that she and Mr Bradley-Schofield had been very happy when they discovered she was pregnant. She has since given birth to a son.

Miss Lawson denied she had an argument with Mr Bradley-Schofield the last time she saw him, which was the night before he died. She said he had become angry and starting smashing cups after she asked him about a phone call he was making.

Miss Lawson said she went to her grandmother's home, but tried to reach him through phone calls and by putting a letter through the door telling him she wanted them to be together.

When Miss Lawson could not get Mr Bradley-Schofield to answer the door, she rang his mother, who arranged for a cousin's husband to go round to his house.

He managed to break through the back door with a sledgehammer and found Mr Bradley-Schofield's body. The inquest heard that notes found by his body suggested that he intended to take his own life.

After giving evidence, Miss Lawson ran from the inquest hearing in tears.

Recording an open verdict, Mrs Leeming said from the evidence she had heard the hanging was totally inconsistent with Mr Bradley-Schofield's personality.

She was not satisfied that he intended to take his own life and said that he may have wanted to demonstrate how upset he felt as a result of the circumstances he had found himself in.

Commenting on the verdict, Mrs Schofield said: "We are all relieved with the open verdict. We never believed he wanted to take his own life. It just wasn't like him.

"Kevan had been settled in Bolton for two years before his death and was making plans for the future. He was a gentleman, a bit cheeky, but he didn't have a bad bone in his body and was brilliant with his son Grant."