A STUDENT hanged himself in his halls of residence as he struggled to overcome the childhood sex assault that "blighted" his life, an inquest heard.
Tyler Duchar-Clark, 19, from Braintree, was found in his Portsmouth University room at about 6pm on Sunday, February 2.
An inquest in Portsmouth on Monday (September heard the kind, well-liked and "clever" teenager suffered from severe depression after he was sexually assaulted, aged 11, by two men.
Giving evidence, Hampshire police detective constable Mark Brockman said Mr Duchar-Clark informed Essex Police of the childhood incident but did not want to prosecute.
Mr Brockman said: "It seems that Tyler was a well-liked and clever man, but due to the horrific incident he suffered as a child he couldn't see how people thought of him and decided to end his life."
University counsellor Amanda Baker said Tyler told her about the historic incident and his ongoing depression, for which he was taking anti-depressants.
She told the inquest, however, he was looking forward and had not expressed any suicide plans.
She said he suffered severe homophobic bullying at secondary school but not at university.
She said: "He felt his depression was linked to the horrible experience he had gone through.
"It became clear the historical things were the things he was most troubled by."
Fellow student Chris Bray, who had begun a relationship with Tyler, found him in the James Watson Hall room about three days after he was last seen.
Mr Bray told the inquest: "Most of the time he was funny, he was kind, but he did have his demons."
His father Paul said his son struggled with depression since he was a teenager, although it had been misdiagnosed as ADHD and Asperger syndrome.
Paul said: "At university, he was the best I had known him for a considerable period of time, he seemed so happy in himself, I looked at him and thought 'he's a grown boy, a man'."
Friends and teachers from Tyler's school days at Tabor Academy and Chelmsford College, where he studied media studies, were quick to pay tribute to the teenager after his death.
Tyler, who stood as the Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) officer for the university's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender society, was described by friend Jon Robson as "mature beyond his years".
Coroner David Horsley recorded a verdict that Mr Duchar-Clark took his own life while suffering severe long-term depression.
Mr Horsley said: "It's quite clear to me that Tyler had gone through a very traumatic experience very early in his life, which at first he was reluctant to talk about, and we can understand how that sort of thing can blight someone's life."
