A professional footballer's brother hanged himself after finding out his girlfriend had been cheating on him, an inquest heard.
Byron
Moore discovered the body of his heartbroken older brother Louis
Moore, 28, on the day he signed for Port Vale FC on July 3.
An
inquest heard their mother received a text message from Louis saying 'I
want to be alone, it's over' as Byron put pen to paper with the League
One club.
After
rushing back from Vale Park stadium to Louis' house in Meir Hay,
Staffordshire, the 26-year-old footballer discovered his brother's body.
Emergency
services were called to the scene at around 3pm but nothing could be
done to save Louis, himself a promising athlete, who represented Great
Britain as a teen.
North Staffordshire Coroners Court heard Byron had also received disturbing messages from his brother earlier in the day.
Giving
evidence, Byron - who joined Port Vale from Crew Alexandra - said the
texts suggested Louis' ex had been seeing another man before they split
up.
He told the inquest: 'My brother and I were really close and we would text each other most days.
'I didn't know about problems with his relationship though because he kept that stuff to himself.
'I normally spoke to him about football and things like that.
'I hadn't seen her since Christmas because she was living and working in London.
'I only knew
about what happened after I had a text message from him on the day I
was signing for Port Vale telling me they had split up.
'He said she had been seeing another man. It was a bit of shock. It just seemed to come of the blue.
'Later on, I had a call from my mum.
'She said she had got a text from Louis and was concerned about him.'
Coroner
Ian Smith concluded that Louis had taken his own life and said the
revelation his former partner might have cheated on him could have been a
trigger for his suicide.
He said: 'Louis found a mobile device belonging to her [his ex-girlfriend] suggesting she had a relationship with someone else.
'He found out on the day and it may be that was a trigger for him to do what he did.
'Clearly
he was deeply upset by losing his long-term girlfriend and then even
more upset and angry at finding messages on the phone and that has
tipped him over the edge.'