A 22-year-old hospital worker took his own life following the breakdown of a relationship with a colleague who was more than twice his age, an inquest has heard.

Kian Harvey, who worked in the decontamination team at the James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston, was found dead after being reported missing to police.

An inquest into his death heard that he had shown no "red flags" to his parents in the days prior, but the alarm was raised after he did not return to his father's house on a day he was scheduled to work.

Around 18 members of his family conducted widespread searches for him before police found him unresponsive in his car behind the derelict former First and Last pub in Ormesby.

The court heard Mr Harvey, who lived in Oulton near Lowestoft, had given his parents no reason to suspect he was struggling with his mental health.

But it emerged that he had become "fixated" with a 55-year-old co-worker who he had pursued for several months before eventually forming a short relationship with. 

The woman told the court she had initially attempted to quell his advances, before eventually engaging in a relationship.

However, she ended the romance after three months citing concerns about their difference in age.

She said the pair continued to work in the same department but Mr Harvey had struggled to accept the relationship ending and a week before his death he had turned up on her door and told her of his struggles.

Then, the day his body was found, she received a handwritten letter from him in the post containing heartbreaking details about his plans.

Senior coroner Jacqueline Lake concluded his death on September 12 to have been suicide.

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