A FORMER Workington Town rugby league player and ‘much-loved’ father and brother was found unresponsive at his home on Christmas Day after taking his own life, an inquest has heard.

Paul Bond, 59, was found at around 10pm on December 25, 2023, at his home on Hartside Court in Workington by his ex-partner, Gemma Holmes.

In a statement submitted to the Coroner’s Court in Cockermouth, Ms Holmes, who had split up from Mr Bond a few weeks previously, told how she became concerned as she would normally would have expected to hear from him by that time.

She checked his WhatsApp profile and saw that he had not been active since the previous evening at around 9.30pm, at which point went to his house, which was unlocked, and discovered him in the loft. 

Ms Holmes called 999, and paramedics confirmed Mr Bond’s death at 10.25pm. 

Police found no evidence of any suspicious circumstances or third-party involvement. 

Ms Holmes said that she had spoken to him the previous evening up to around 8.30pm, as they were still on speaking terms. She described the conversation as ‘general chit-chat' 

She said Mr Bond’s mood was ‘very low, and this was the reason I was still speaking to him’, that he had suffered from depression for a number of years, but that she had asked him to stop calling after he had rung ‘four or five times’ the previous evening, and she wanted to be left alone. 

One of Mr Bond’s three sisters, Joanne Dixon, gave a statement to the court saying she had last seen her brother on December 18, when he seemed ‘happy and normal’, saying he would be working over the Christmas period, in his job a process worker. 

She said he was a ‘keen sportsman’, playing rugby league for Workington Town in the 1990s, and taking part in an Ironman competition in his 50s, in which he placed highly. 

A statement from Mr Bond’s GP said that he suffered from stress and mental health issues, but provided no further details other than that he was not being prescribed any medication. 

A postmortem toxicology report showed ‘recreational’ levels of alcohol and amphetamine in Mr Bond’s system. 

Area coroner for Cumbria, Ms Kirsty Gomersal, concluded that Mr Bond completed suicide by hanging.