A car salesman who struggled to come to terms with the death of his baby boy inhaled fatal fumes from a car exhaust, an inquest was told.

Carl Swales, 27, was found dead with a picture of five-month-old Ashley on his lap in a BMW car parked inside a garage at his home in Queensbury, Bradford, last November.

The inquest heard how he felt guilty after his son died from a heart problem in January 1999. He tried to seek attention by taking his former girlfriend's insulin.

His fiancee Lisa Spence said in a statement that she dropped him off at a pub during the evening of November 23 and went to work.

When she arrived home at 8am the next day, she opened the garage door and found Mr Swales sitting in the front seat of his car with his son's picture on his lap.

Miss Spence noticed a vacuum pipe had been placed from the exhaust and through a window. The engine was not running but when she went to the driver's door she knew Mr Swales was dead.

A post-mortem examination showed that Mr Swales, of Pendle Court, Queensbury, died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Recording a verdict of misadventure, assistant deputy coroner James Turnbull said he believed Mr Swales wanted people to know how he was feeling. "For some reason he felt guilty. There were occasions he felt low - when he felt he needed to do something spectacular to emphasise how he was feeling at the time.''