A MAN whose body was found in a river had been hanged from a tree branch, an inquest heard yesterday.

Anthony Lee, 41, of Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, was discovered in the River Swale, North Yorkshire, last November.

The inquest, in Richmond, was told there were no witnesses to Mr Lee's death, but a Home Office pathologist confirmed the cause of death as hanging, from a tree branch near the Skeeby beck.

Police were satisfied there were no suspicious circumstances and Mr Lee, who had been staying in a camping van at Brompton-on-Swale, had not been the victim of any theft or assault. An open verdict was recorded