A MUSICALLY-gifted Catholic priest killed himself by jumping from a two-storey landing at Belmont Abbey, a Hereford coroner recorded.

Former Abbot Father Alan Rees, whose music is known in churches across the globe, had lived with depression for many years, yesterday's (Wednesday) inquest heard.

On October 1 last year, the man who composed the music for the visit of Pope John Paul II to Cardiff in 1982, ended his life by leaping to his death from a banister.

Brother Peter Berry told the coroner he found Father Rees' body on the concrete floor at the bottom of the stairs in the Abbey's main hallway at 7.20am.

But he said the position of the 64-year-old's body ruled out an accidental fall down the staircase.

"I realised Alan had fallen from the second floor because his slippers were there on the landing next to a chair," he said.

"This indicated to me that Alan had jumped."

The current Abbot at Belmont Abbey, Paul Stonham, said Father Rees had been moody for some time and had tried to take his life by putting a plastic bag over his head a year before.

He said Father Rees suffered a nervous breakdown while studying in Cardiff and received treatment at The Priory Hospital in London in 1993.

Father Stonham added that the latest bout of depression began in 2000 and was brought about by a novel Father Rees was reading.

Dr Ken Godbert, from Herefordshire Community Mental Health Services, said Father Rees had received support from the Stonebow Unit and been prescribed anti-depressants.

"There were difficulties because of his state of isolation and loneliness and he questioned his beliefs," he said.

"But in the week before his death he had seemed more positive and had been talking about his music."

Father Stonham agreed, saying: "His death was totally unexpected - it was a particularly horrific thing to do."

Hereford pathologist Frank McGinty confirmed Father Rees died the day after the fall in Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital from severe head injuries due to trauma.

Coroner David Halpern said it was clear that Father Rees had intended to take his life and recorded a verdict of suicide.