Samuel Plewnik was found by friends hanging from the bannister of his flat in Wellington Square in November last year.

It was just days after his relationship with Yasmin Harris - his on-off girlfriend of two years and mother of his son - had ended.

An inquest at Hastings Magistrates Court this week heard Mr Plewnik had taped a suicide note to the wall addressed to his ex and that a number of text messages between the two were found on his mobile phone.

The coroner revealed one of these messages was from Miss Harris asking when he would be round to collect his son. It tragically went unanswered.

Miss Harris told the inquest the pair's relationship had been heading towards break-up for some weeks and had finally ended three or four days before his suicide.

The inquest also heard that the 18-year-old store manager had contacted close friend Marianne Harrison the day before his death and told her he wanted to die.

Speaking at the inquest, Miss Harrison said: "He told me he no longer wanted to live. He said Yasmin had upset him. I told him not to be so stupid.

"I then spoke to him again at about 6.30pm on the day he died. He seemed ok and was joking around. I made him promise he would not do anything stupid and he promised he wouldn't."

Mr Plewnik was found by Simon Khas who described the deceased as "a decent bloke". He told the inquest he had popped round to Mr Plewnik's flat with another friend but that nobody had answered the door.

The pair returned later that day and found the door sitting on its latch. He said: "We pushed the door open and went in. It was dark and I was looking for a light switch. When I found one and turned it on he was hanging from the bannisters.

"I cut him down and he was cold."

Recording a verdict of suicide, coroner Alan Craze said: "The text messages and the note give us a good idea about what was going through his mind. I would like to think it was a spur of the moment decision. The evidence suggests it wasn't.

"This is by no means a unique case. The pattern we see is that when teenage relationships break down the boys are able to handle it less well than the girls.

"That seems to have been what happened here."

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