The family of a man found hanged in Penryn have asked why it took police nearly two hours to go to his address after concerns had been raised by his partner.

The body of Ian Michael Waller, 50, was found by officers at the home he shared with his partner Joanne Kerrigan at 41 Glasney Place, after they had been alerted b social services to potential domestic abuse at the address, in October last year.

Ms Kerrigan, who said her five-and-a-half-year relationship with Mr Waller had not always been harmonious and had at times turned physical, said on the day he died he had been in "a strange mood."

She said: "He was not himself at all, different to how he had been. He had been different for a week or so before hand."

She added that the "normally bubbly" man she knew had instead been talking to himself and would not talk to her at all, which scared her.

She said: "I told him I was going to the shop, took Gracie (their daughter) and that was when I sneaked out."

Ms Kerrigan, who had called the police in the past when Mr Waller became abusive - then went to the Falmouth Family Centre and asked them to contact social services, and they in turn contacted the police.

That was at 3.30pm, and at around 5.20pm officers went to the couple's address, where they received no response when they tried the door.

PC Christopher Hart said: "I had been told that we were there to make an arrest for an alleged domestic assault."

However, after seeing no signs of anyone at the front or back of the house, the group of four officers obtained a key from Ms Kerrigan and opened the front door, where they searched the whole house before finding Mr Waller in the upstairs bathroom. PC Hart checked him and found no life signs.

In response to questions from the coroner, Barrie van den Berg, Ms Kerrigan said Mr Waller had told her he had attempted to take his own life before he met her, and had expressed suicidal thoughts to her but not in the days leading up to his death. The inquest was told he had not left a note.

Mr Waller's cousin asked why it had taken two hours from police being notified to officers arriving at the house.

He was told by DC Adam Partridge that the police had to process the report. He then asked "but if she had called 999 someone would be there quickly" he was told by DC Partridge "it depends on whether she was at the address."

He said: "Two hours went past. That's quite a long time for the police to arrive."

And Mr Waller's mother, Valerie, asked why the police were going to arrest him when his partner had not reported any assault.

Asked about any possible reason for Mr Waller's death, she said she thought he might have been worried Joanne was going to take his daughter away, adding "he idolised his little girl."

The inquest heard a report from Dr Ilona Hopkins, a pathologist who had found no evidence of drink or drugs in Mr Waller's system, and gave the cause of death as hanging.

The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide, and extended his deepest sympathy to the family.