Suicide man unaware of inheritance

A PENNILESS man killed himself after years of homelessness unaware that he had inherited two farms, an inquest was told yesterday.

Michael Lynch, 48, died instantly when he was hit by a train after he lay across a track at High Wycombe station, Buckinghamshire, in January this year.

He had left Ireland when he was 22 and lost touch with his family in 1977. Later that year he inherited two smallholdings in Co Leitrim but although relatives hired private detectives to trace him, he was never found. His family believed he was dead.

Richard Hulett, the South Buckinghamshire coroner, was told that Mr Lynch had been invited into a police car to warm up on the day of his death. PC Joyce Winter said: 'He got into the car to get warm - he didn't have anywhere to live. He said he was an unemployed roadman who was hiding from gypsies who wanted to kill him.'

The jury returned a verdict of suicide.