A drug addict and serial offender who had been in and out of prison all his adult life reconciled his broken relationship with his father telling him 'I love you' before he was found dead at a Manchester probation hostel, an inquest heard.
Gareth Stephen Hutchinson, 35, was found unresponsive in his room at the Withington Road, Whalley Range hostel on March 23, 2016.
Assistant coroner for Manchester Coroner's Court, Andrew Bridgman, said the hearing into how Gareth met his death was likely to last six days, explaining that the progress of the complex inquest had been hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
READ MORE: Two men arrested and drugs seized in police raid after 'lengthy investigation' into dealing
His father Stephen Hutchinson said Gareth, from Salford, was the eldest of his three sons and had worked with him as a painter and decorator before going self-employed.
He had started using cannabis as a teenager and later this progressed to cocaine use before the family found needles in his bedroom.
"Drugs started Gareth on a downward slope," said Mr Hutchinson. "They changed his personality and he became more aggressive and argumentative. He would steal from the family to fund his drugs."
Gareth and his partner had a son in 2000 and a daughter in 2006, but he was later arrested and jailed on charges relating to his partner and stabbing his brother.
"Drugs changed his mental state, and he became more paranoid," said Mr Hutchinson.
In 1999, at the age of just 18, Gareth had made an attempt to hang himself, but Mr Hutchinson said it was 'a cry for help', the inquest heard.
In 2010, he called his family before self harming, the court was told.
In 2016, Mr Hutchinson had reconciled with his son and went to pick him up from Wymott prison in Lancashire.
Mr Hutchinson went on: "He told me 'I love you' - not like him - which I was worried about because it sounded quite final. Then he went for a drink with a cousin and asked a lot of questions about his uncle who had killed himself by hanging."
The grieving father told the hearing he didn't think his son had intended to take his own life because he had 'too much to live for'.
"He was just days away from gaining access to his teenage son who was about to turn 16 and looking forward to rekindling his relationship with his son," said Mr Hutchinson. "Gareth loved fishing and he was hoping he could get his son into it too."
But on the morning of March 23, Gareth's mother had tried to call him on his mobile phone and got no response.
She alerted staff at Withington Road and when they entered his room, they found him dead.
Coroners officer PC Ian Taylor said a police investigation revealed there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.
Post mortem examination results said the cause of death was ligature strangulation.
PROCEEDING.
