Gary Speed death may have been 'Accidental'

By Natasia Moore

An inquest into the death of former Wales manager and Everton footballer Gary Speed heard how he was found hanged in his home after rowing with his wife.

Louise Speed told the coroner at Warrington Coroners Court that her and Gary, had been going through 'ups and downs'  but were 'working through' their problems.

The couple, who married in 1996, were arguing against a background of 'stresses' connected to the 42-year-old's job managing the Welsh national team.

They 'had words' in the hours before he was found dead at 7am on Sunday, November 27, last year, after returning home from a dinner party at a friend's house.

Louise Speed told the hearing: 

'We walked in the house and we had an exchange of words about something and nothing.'

'After being locked out of the house and spending the night in the car, Mrs Speed found her husband dead in the garage of their home in Huntington, Cheshire.

Blinking away tears she said: 

'I went to the window and there I saw him.'

She said she then woke their two boys, who had been sleeping upstairs, to let her in the house and called the emergency services.

Mrs Speed said her husband had talked of taking his life in a text exchange about five days earlier. She said: 

'He talked in terms about taking his own life and then he moved on and talked about moving forward and how important the boys were to him.

'It was in the context of the ups and downs of our marriage. The texts went on about our future together and how excited he was about our journey together.'

Asked if the Wales job was forcing him to spend more time away from his family, Mrs Speed said: 

'I think he was spending more hours there than he thought he would do initially.'

Recording a narrative verdict, Nicholas Rheinberg gave the cause of death as hanging but said: 

'The evidence does not sufficiently determine whether this was intentional or accidental'.

'It seems likely that Mr Speed was sitting for some time with a ligature around his neck.

'It may have been that this was some sort of dramatic gesture, not normally in Mr Speed's character, but nonetheless, a possibility.

'It was a `possibility'' he was sat there for some time and he `nodded off to sleep' with the ligature still around his neck.'

In a statement on behalf of the Speed family, Richard Bevan, of the League Managers Association, said: 

'Gary's death and the manner of it, made Sunday 27 November 2011 the worst day of our lives.

'Throughout the nine weeks since, there have been some very dark moments, which we have all had to find our own different ways to endure.

'Now, we have to adapt to the future without a husband, a father, a brother and a son; but Gary's memory shines brightly in our thoughts and we will forever remember the wonderful times we shared with him and the deep love and affection he offered so freely within our close knit family.'