AN OPEN verdict has been recorded after the death of a talented journalist and management consultant in his Kidlington flat.

Edward Simmonds, 28, of Manor Court, High Street, suffered from depression and insomnia, but was talking about getting married and starting a family when he was found suffocated on Monday, May 10.

He had tried to take his own life several times before, including threatening to jump off a cliff at Yosemite Park, California, Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner heard yesterday.

But his family said that in the weeks before his death, Mr Simmonds, right, had been happy for the first time in his life.

Oxford Coroner’s Court heard Mr Simmonds, who had worked for Forbes Magazine and had degrees from Oxford Brookes and Exeter universities, was extremely private about his mental health problems and alcohol addiction.

His girlfriend Brittany Cole, of Coopers Green, Bicester, said the last time she saw him, on Thursday, May 6, he had been “completely normal”. But on Saturday, May 8, she missed a call from Mr Simmonds at 3.30pm and could not make contact with him 30 minutes later.

On the Monday morning, she found him dead at his flat.

A notebook of his writing was found nearby, but it did not contain a suicide note.

Mr Gardiner recorded an open verdict, saying there was not sufficient proof Mr Simmonds wanted to kill himself.