An "amazing" dad who "lit up the room" died after being hit by a train near Welshpool, an inquest has heard.

Former roofing supplies manager Leighton Tibbott, 42, had had bouts of severe depression and had gone missing on several occasions in the months before his death.

The father-of-two was found on the railway track near Forden, Welshpool on the morning of April 9, 2020, after travelling from his home in Bristol earlier that day.

Mr Tibbott was well-known in the Welshpool area where he grew up, and friends remember him as a “great man”. A memorial football match held in Forden earlier this month raised £2,670 for the CALM mental health charity.

His widow, Emma, told the inquest at Pontypridd Coroner's Court on Thursday (September 15) that her husband of eight years would "put on a brave face" about his bouts of severe depression and suicidal thoughts.

"He lit up the room," she said tearfully. "He was just nice; he didn’t need to try. People warmed to him. He had a genuine interest in everyone. He was an amazing dad, and he would literally do anything for anyone.

"He took his work very seriously. I think he struggled with feeling bad. And as bad as it got, I don’t think he was given the right tools to get better and he would put on a brave face. He would say what people wanted to hear."

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The first day of the inquest heard that Mr Tibbott struggled with the "tremendous" pressure from his promotion as a regional manager at a large roofing supplies company. He then had a mental and physical breakdown in 2017.

Mr Tibbott returned to work after sick leave in early 2018 but eventually took voluntary redundancy in late 2019.

"He would beat himself all day long. He was at home alone every day and would tell himself he was useless. He had a book to write his feelings and he wrote it as a story book. He felt that he was a failure, and that people would be disappointed. He told me not to read it and I didn't until after he died. It was just the saddest thing."

The inquest heard that Mr Tibbott went missing on at least four occasions, including for nine days which involved a police appeal to the public for information about his whereabouts.

"When he went missing for nine days, it was everywhere on Facebook. I knew he would be mortified and he was. He cared about what everybody thought. He didn’t want to tell people anything. He was quite private with it. But his actions made it quite public. The Leighton who died wasn’t the Leighton I knew.

"He really did want to get better on every occasion."

On the day before Mr Tibbott died, he landed a successful contract in his new role with different company and was “upbeat”, the inquest was told.

Emma added: "I think with Leighton once he started work again, he thought he would instantly feel better. He felt worthless without a job. He wanted to be back to how he was. He tried that pretence but deep down he couldn’t keep up with how he wanted to be."

At 11.55am on April 9, 2020, Mr Tibbott was struck near Forden by a passenger train travelling from Welshpool.

The inquest heard written evidence from the train driver who was excused from attending in person because he is "extremely upset" and "still in shock" about what happened.

The driver said he immediately sounded the horn of the train when he saw Mr Tibbott on the track who had an "expressionless face and made no attempt to move".

"There was nothing I could do at such a short distance," the train driver said.

Emergency services were sent to the scene including British Transport Police and a Welshpool-based Wales Air Ambulance doctor who pronounced his death at 12.24pm.

Mr Tibbott’s widow said she had not received a message from her husband about his intentions on the day he died.

A post-mortem concluded that Mr Tibbott died of "multiple severe traumatic injuries" and there were no other drugs apart from his anti-depressant medication found in his blood.

The inquest, expected to last two days, concludes on Friday (September 16).

Helplines

If you would like any help with bereavement, loss or mental wellbeing, here are some helpline numbers

You can call the Samaritans on 116 123

Papyrus Hopeline on 0800 068 4141

Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) on 0800 58 58 58

Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SOBS) 0300 111 5065 or uksobs.org