MISSIONARY John English took his own life with an overdose of anti-depressants after becoming miserable when he returned to England.

His sister Linda Adams found the Jehovah's Witness, 41, dead in bed with a tie round his neck at her home in Stoke Lyne, near Bicester, last November.

Mr English was staying with her and her husband Michael after recently returning from Bolivia in South America where he had been a missionary for the last ten years.

He was prescribed the drugs two days before he died after seeing Dr John Talbot at Bicester Health Centre. Dr Talbot said in a statement read to Oxford Coroner's Court yesterday that Mr English told him he was depressed and this country had nothing to offer him. He felt out of place and wanted to return to South America, where he was happy as a missionary, when he had enough money.

Mr English, of Dover, Kent, who never married, was unable to sleep and he was fed up lying awake at night but he denied having suicidal thoughts which he said was against his beliefs.

Dr Nicholas Mahy, a consultant pathologist at the Horton General Hospital, Banbury, told the inquest that Mr English died of an overdose of anti-depressants more than 12 hours before he was found. The tie had no part in his death.

Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict that Mr English took his own life. Jury clears lorry driver LORRY driver Roy Kibble wept in the dock as he was cleared of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl.

A jury at Oxford Crown Court unanimously found him not guilty of indecent assault.

Mr Kibble, 54, of Hill View, Carterton, was accused of assaulting the girl on August 10 last year but maintained his innocence throughout the trial.

He told the jury he was "terribly shocked" by the accusation. "It's ripped me to pieces," he said.

Mr Kibble, a father-of-three who has been married for 31 years, also told the court how shocked he was by the details given by the little girl.

He said he wished he knew what he had done to cause her to make up such "terrible lies" about him.

His employer, Edith Richens, of J.H.Richens transport company, of Carterton, said she had known Mr Kibble since they started primary school. She said she had never doubted his honesty. Prayers for Gulf peace MANY churches in Oxfordshire were opening their doors today to pray for peace in the Gulf. Visitors were invited to take part in special services and light candles after The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Richard Harries, called for a day of prayer over the growing Middle East crisis.

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