A popular professional stable boy was found hanging from his nephew’s bunkbed after a night of drinking and taking cocaine.

One of his final actions was to leave a message to friends on Facebook, "What a shit life I have had. Goodnight and see you in the next life."

There was an outpouring of grief among the horse racing community in November last year after 30-year-old Lee Pollitt was found dead in his sister’s home in Cudham Drive, New Addington.

The groom, who worked in Newmarket, had visited his GP in Suffolk in the months leading up to his death complaining of depression, and had said he was experiencing thoughts of self-harm, before taking leave from work to live with his sister’s family in Croydon.

At an inquest on Thursday September 14 Croydon Coroners Court heard how Mr Pollitt’s brother-in-law Robert Prince was up late on the night of November 15.

In evidence read to the court, Mr Prince described how Mr Pollitt came home at 12.30am on Saturday November 26 and logged onto Facebook on a computer downstairs.

He went upstairs at about 4am but Mr Prince’s suspicions were only aroused an hour later when he heard Mr Pollitt’s phone vibrating unanswered.

He looked into the bedroom Mr Pollitt was sharing with his 10 year old nephew, and saw what looked like the 30-year-old sitting on the bottom bunk. He asked what was going on, and turned on the light, when he realised he was hanging.

Despite his efforts to free him and then resuscitate him, when ambulance officers arrived just after 5am they were unable to help and pronounced him dead.

A post-mortem conducted three days later found a blood alcohol level two times the drink drive limit, and a small amount of cocaine.

Dr Roy Palmer, conducting the inquest ruled that while he was certain no-one helped Mr Pollitt hang himself, he could not be sure he intended to take his own life and recorded an open verdict.

He said: "I have got the fact he was loaded up on alcohol and cocaine and for this reason I am not satified he meant to kill himself."