A TRAGIC couple died within three months of each another, an inquest hearing was told yesterday.

Just nine weeks after Melanie James killed herself with a cocktail of drink and drugs, her husband Paul Christopher James died of acute alcohol poisoning.

Both died in the bedroom of the home they shared in Church Street, Bishop Middleham.

The inquest, at Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court, heard that their stormy relationship had been tested in the year before their deaths.

Mr James had been unable to work as a driver since he was involved in a car accident in London and the couple worried about money.

Both had turned to alcohol as a means of escaping their personal and financial troubles.

On June 12, Mr James was staying with his parents, Peter and Elsie, when his stepdaughter called at the house to say she could not get into their home.

Mr James and his father went to the house and found the door was locked, but he was able to climb through the bedroom window using a ladder.

Mrs James was found on the bed and although an ambulance was called she could not be resuscitated.

Dr Clive Bloxom, consultant pathologist at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, found that Mrs James died of acute respiratory failure due to a multiple drugs overdose.

She left behind two notes describing how depressed she felt.

After his wife's death, Mr James, 37, was severely depressed, but on September 18, he met health and social workers and agreed to start an alcohol rehabilitation course and a new medication to help his depression.

Later that day his parents went to his home and found him slumped on the bed, clutching a bottle of vodka to his chest.

An ambulance was called but he was declared dead at the scene.

South Durham Coroner Colin Penna ruled that Mrs James had taken her own life, but recorded an open verdict on her husband.

He said: "It is possible that Mr James was prepared to accept his problems and looked at positive ways of moving on but may had decided to have one last fling with alcohol.

"I believe Mrs James knew what she was doing, but only one person will know what went through Mr James' mind.