AN open verdict was recorded at an inquest into the death of architectural technologist Rupert Beverley-Smith, who was found hanging by a belt from an upstairs bannister at his Bourton home.

At the Gloucester inquest, coroner Alan Crickmore heard Mr Beverley-Smith had a history of depression.

Mr Crickmore heard that Gillian King, who walked Mr Beverley-Smith's dogs, contacted the police’s Detective Sergeant Gavin Webb on July 30 2008 to report that she and a friend had discovered him hanging at his home on Melville Estate.

DS Webb, who went there and found the badly decomposed body, said there were no suspicious circumstances.

The inquest heard Mr Beverley-Smith’s two dogs had defecated, the weather was hot and there were hundreds of flies in every room.

Pathologist Dr Keith McCarthy concluded he died more than a week before being discovered.

Ms King said that, for walking his dogs, she would leave an invoice on Fridays and collect a cheque on Mondays.

She said she visited on July 28 and noted there was no cheque and two dog bowls - one with water, the other empty.

Returning the next day, she noted a smell and found one bowl with water and food in another.

Mr Beverley-Smith's former partner, Stephanie Edwards, said he was depressed and once discussed suicide.

"I believe he came off medication after our split," she said.

She said they remained friends and a week or two before his body was discovered he visited her, saying he had financial difficulties.

Cause of death was put as hanging.