A SECURITY guard this week told an inquest of the horrifying moment he had to let go of a suicidal man from the Eden car park because he could take his weight no longer.

Craig Whiting tried to stop Antony Williams from falling to his death from the third level of the car park at the High Wycombe shopping centre on April 21.

Mr Whiting told the Amersham inquest on Wednesday he had spotted 45-year-old Mr Williams by chance after hearing his tracksuit bottoms “scraping” against an outside wall.

He said after seeing Mr Williams clinging on to a railing on the third level of the car park, he tried to rescue him.

But he said: “I had my right arm on a girder to support myself and my left arm around his hip to support him. It seemed to last forever but it lasted only a minute or a minute and a half.

“Suddenly the male let go and I felt his full weight. I was unable to hold onto him and he fell to the floor.

“I didn't look down. I didn't want to see him hit the floor.”

Mr Whiting said Mr Williams, of Hatters Lane, High Wycombe, said “not one word” during the incident.

The inquest heard Mr Williams had been suffering from depression and was diagnosed with paranoid psychosis in 1996.

He had been known to mental health officials since 1989.

He had last been seen by his GP, Dr Sibghat Majeed, at the Riverside surgery on April 2. Dr Majeed said there was “nothing out of the ordinary, or I would be alarmed at” from what Mr Williams had said during the appointment.

He had spoken about his fears of contracting diabetes rather than his mental health.

Dr Majeed's colleague, Dr Amar Sattar, said: “He struck me as a person with a good insight. He articulated well on the issues affecting him.

“He was very fond of his fiancée and saw that relationship as a supportive one for him and his mental health.”

Mr Williams had gone to Bournemouth on a day trip with fiancée Sarah Chalkley on April 19, where he had been “really happy”.

But the following day he failed to turn up to either of his two cleaning jobs, at Holy Trinity Church in Hazlemere and Davenies School in Beaconsfield.

His sister Carol Sparrow said he was spotted “walking up and down really slowly”, looking “dishevelled, troubled and unwell” near the church.

On the morning of his death he had “seemed very quiet and withdrawn” and was “desperate” for his medication to take effect, the inquest heard.

Coroner Richard Hulett said he could not be certain Mr Williams had intended to kill himself and recorded an open verdict.

Summing up, Mr Hulett said Mr Williams had handled his mental illness “rather better” than many people.

He said: “He doesn't make any statement to anyone, although he had suicidal thoughts. He doesn't say to anyone 'I have had enough of this life, I'm off to kill myself' – he doesn't make any demonstration of that or leave any notes.

“He doesn't make any threats [to kill himself] or leave messages with his family."

Mr Hulett said he felt Mr Williams was "in two minds" about jumping from the car park.

He said: “Most people jump fairly positively. He's lowered himself over the side and he's hanging on to the railing and when he does let go, I don't know if he deliberately lets go or not.”

Mr Williams' sister said he had tended to keep his medical problems to himself.

She told the inquest: “I have seen him more often when he was well than ill. A lot of his medical history was new to me. He didn't talk about it a lot.

“There's only one instance I can recollect him being unwell. The rest of the time he was my brother – a quiet, loving, gentle man.”