A man who saw his half-brother hang himself believed he was witnessing a practical joke, an inquest heard.

Craig Henderson thought Gerald Sinclair Henderson was "fooling around'' when he placed a soft black belt around his neck.

And yesterday Coroner Archie Warner said he could not tell whether the tragedy stemmed from a prank or intentional suicide. He delivered an open verdict.

The family of Gerald Sinclair Henderson had retained lawyer Richard Horseman in their effort to prove the 26-year-old did not commit suicide on April 17 last year.

In testimony from Mr. Henderson's mother, girlfriend and half brother, the inquest heard that he was a regular practical joker who was in very good spirits just prior to his death because he had a new job. Bernadette Henderson, the mother of the deceased, revealed that her son had been diagnosed with a mild case of schizophrenia and had successfully completed treatment four years before his death. But she noted that he had been in very good spirits with no signs of depression at all since that time.

Craig Henderson, half brother of Gerald Henderson, explained in detail how he watched his older half brother die, thinking all the time that he was simply "fooling around''.

The tragedy took place in the bedroom of Craig Henderson when the deceased took a soft black belt he found on the floor and fashioned it around his neck as a noose. Reportedly in a jovial and joking manner, the deceased then asked his younger teenaged half brother, Kyle, to pull the noose tighter around his neck, ironically telling him that if he died "he could have all his clothes''.

According to Craig Henderson his younger brother Kyle did not accede to the request and left the bedroom. He said that the deceased then went into a small clothes closet and tied the loose end of the belt to the metal pole.

"He then gradually knelt down in the closet facing the wall,'' he said, "when his knees hit the ground the belt was still loose but he kept pressing his weight forward and gasping. I told him stop playing around and that he would break my belt, but he kept doing it,'' he continued.

Craig Henderson revealed that he and his younger brother were so convinced that the deceased was acting, that they went downstairs into the kitchen of the house to get something to drink.

"When we got back upstairs he was in the same position and I told him to get up but he just made choking noises,'' Craig Henderson said, "I told Kyle to go and get some matches and then I brought the flame to Gerald's ear, and he did not respond. I did it again and he did not respond, then I knew something was wrong.

"I looked at his face and saw his tongue hanging out. I untied the belt and then lifted him out of the closet. He was still making some noises. I called out to my brother to call 911 and I lied him down flat on my bedroom floor.'' Craig Henderson testified that his mother, Pauline, arrived home at this time and performed CPR on the deceased until the ambulance arrived. According to a hospital report, Gerald Henderson was dead on arrival and an autopsy determined the cause of death as asphyxiation by strangulation. The autopsy also indicated that the strangulation was probably self-inflicted as there was no evidence that anyone else was involved.

The deceased's live-in girlfriend of two years, Jane Hall claimed that he was not depressed. The mother of his baby daughter Sophia, Ms Hall, was pregnant with his second child at the time of his death. She was insistent that he had not committed suicide.