A BRAINTREE man committed suicide by drinking a concoction of poisonous plants he liquidised in a blender, an inquest heard.
David Corney, 39, was found dead at his home in Braintree, where he lived alone, on December 3 last year.
He had suffered on and off from depression for many years, a fact unknown to his mental health supervisors.
Mr Corney had not been taking his medication and began to distance himself from his mother, stating he was working away in Birmingham, but this was not true.
A friend first raised alarms about his behaviour when Mr Corney began researching the toxicity of certain plants.
"Clearly he knew quite how poisonous they were, he'd gone into detail about it.
He took a deliberate action, he prepared these plants and used a blender with a clearly thought out intention, knowing it would result in his death."
In a post-mortem examination carried out by Dr Kamel at Broomfield Hospital, the cause of death given as ingestion of a toxic substance.
The police concluded that there were no suspicious circumstances connected with the death.
Mr Corney left two handwritten notes to his family, and it is believed he had been planning and researching toxic plants for around three weeks.
On closing the New Bridge House hearing in Chelmsford, coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray read out a letter submitted from Mr Corney's family.
"When David was on form, his smile was out, he was the jester who made everyone laugh, but he was unhappy in his own skin," it read.
In her closing remarks Mrs Beasley-Murray added: "He clearly had lots of nice qualities and was clearly loved by his family.
"I hope you can keep the happy and positive memories about him."