A former wrestler who said he was travelling to North Wales to start a new life actually came to kill himself, an inquest heard.

A note found alongside the body of 38-year-old Robert Bradshaw was headed “The end” and in it he said “I hope the helium works”.

He was found in his car, having inhaled the gas from a canister.

The alarm was raised when a passer-by told police that Mr Bradshaw’s car had been in the public car-park in Tip Lane, Prestatyn for a few days and the decomposition of the body indicated that Mr Bradshaw had been there for some time.

Consultant pathologist Dr Mark Lord gave the cause of death as asphyxia due to helium suffocation.

At a hearing in Ruthin John Gittins, coroner for North Wales East and Central, said that Mr Bradshaw, of Critchlow Grove, Blurton, Stoke-on-Trent, was a former professional wrestler and wrestling promoter who had more recently worked as a security guard.

He was separated from his wife, who last spoken to him five days before his body was found on August 7.

She said he had suffered from depression, had several debts and had previously attempted to kill himself with an overdose of paracetamol.

Recording a conclusion of suicide, the coroner said: “I have no doubt from the condition of the body that he had been there a little while.”