Top sports official Mr. Clifford Stanley Roberts, who was found hanging from the rafters of PHC Stadium last September, took his own life, an inquest confirmed this week.

"Having reviewed the evidence presented before me, I hereby conclude that Clifford Stanley Roberts died from suicide,'' Coroner Mr. Paul King declared on Tuesday to a courtroom that included several of Mr. Roberts' grim-faced relatives.

"His death is a tragedy to both his family and the many organisations that he served so adamantly. My condolences go to all.'' The lifeless body of Mr. Roberts, the secretary of Pembroke Hamilton Club and a member of the Bermuda Football Association's Competitions and League Committee, was discovered by PHC vice president Mr. Chris Furbert in a storeroom at the stadium on September 12.

Mr. Furbert, who told the inquest that he had known the dead man for some 30 years, said he switched on the lights in the storeroom to find the 44-year-old Mr. Roberts hanging from a cedar beam by a rope around his neck.

He then fled the room to consult with a colleague and telephone the Police, Mr. Furbert said.

Mr. Roberts was pronounced dead shortly after.

Dr. John Winwick, a King Edward VII Memorial Hospital pathologist who performed Mr. Roberts' autopsy, told the inquest that the sports official had deep rope marks on his neck, a swollen and protruding tongue and a suffused brain.

The suffusion of the brain, Dr. Winwick testified, suggested asphyxia and was common to hanging victims.

He said there were no other signs of unexplained trauma, and pronounced the cause of Mr. Roberts' death as asphyxia.

Sandys Parish resident Ms Michelle Caesar, meanwhile, told the inquest that Mr. Roberts, a friend of hers since 1960, didn't seem "as happy'' a week before his death.

Just two days before his death, Ms Caesar said Mr. Roberts told her he was "sick and dying''. She said he was behaving out of character.

She also testified that Mr. Roberts was particularly depressed by his girlfriend's refusal to let him see his youngest son.

"I'm sure there was something he wasn't telling me,'' Ms Caesar was quoted as telling the Police.

She said at the inquest that she had also noticed telephone wire in Mr.

Roberts' Sandys Parish home the last time she was there.

Coroner's officer Sgt. Rex Osborne mentioned two letters that were left behind by Mr. Roberts but did not reveal their contents.

Describing the contents as highly personal, he did say the letters lent weight to a conclusion of suicide.

Mr. Roberts, who lived on Spire View Lane, was the father of five children.

In addition to his involvement with the BFA and PHC, he was also an official with the Bermuda Track and Field Association and an employee of the Bermuda Telephone Company.