TWO bouncers killed themselves in a suicide pact because of their mounting personal problems, an inquest heard yesterday.

Pals Paul Williams, 38, and Christopher Howe, 32, took painkillers, cannabis and then attached a hosepipe to the exhaust of a car in which they were later found dead.

An inquest in Durham was told how the friends, who both worked as doormen, died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Police forensic officers found suicide notes on their bodies when they were discovered by a horrified friend, in March this year.

The court was told that father-of-one Mr Williams, of Harth Crescent, Blackhall Rocks, County Durham, took his own life after he split from his partner Vicky Ward, 20.

Close friend Mr Howe, a father-of-four, of East Street, Blackhall, was worried about being sent to prison after he was charged with assault while at work and was awaiting a crown court hearing.

Mr Williams had been living with a friend, Robert Atherton, for two days when he killed himself.

Mr Atherton found the two men in a K-reg Vauxhall Astra parked on his driveway on the morning of March 6.

The inquest heard how on the night before the tragedy all three friends had been drinking and watching videos.

Mr Atherton said: "I had known Paul and Chris for quite some time and they were very good friends.

"Paul had had some problems in his relationship but on the night before he died everything seemed normal.

"He had been with Vicky a long time but they were always rowing and I was there to pick up the pieces."

The inquest was told that Mr Williams had suffered bouts of depression and had tried to commit suicide once before, in September last year.

Gemma Howe, wife of Christopher Howe, told how she met her husband a year before he died and they had married last Christmas Eve.

She said: "Chris was a worrier - he worried about everything.

"He worried that he had no money and he wanted to support me. He was very worried about being sent to jail."

Mrs Howe, 25, said that hours before her husband died they had rowed because she felt suspicious that he and Paul were planning something after a string of constant phone calls.

The friends were found dead by Mr Atherton when he woke and heard the noise of the car engine still running in his driveway.

North Durham coroner Andrew Tweddle recorded a verdict that the friends had killed themselves.

He said: "Looking at the notes they left and the evidence set out, it is clear they set out to take their own lives and that is what they did.

"It is a tragic situation and at times like this words are inadequate."