AN INQUEST has heard of the dramatic last moments in the life of car salesman Percy Clark, who shot himself dead on his daughter’s wedding day.

Armed police surrounded the house in The Halt, Whitstable, on the night of May 31 after his wife, Pauline Clark, dialled 999 to report that he was threatening to kill her.

Mrs Clark told the hearing how she fled and hid from her "furious" husband after he threatened to shoot her with his shotgun.

She said that she later looked through a window and saw her 49-year-old husband sitting in a chair with the shotgun in front of him. Shortly afterwards she heard the sound of a gun.

Neither police nor ambulance technicians were able to revive Mr Clark.

But Mr Clark’s brother Chris claimed that his brother had been unfairly branded a violent man. He said that there had been no sign during the day of the tragedy that was about to happen.

The coroner recorded a verdict that Mr Clark had taken his own life.

* Full story in this week's Whitstable Gazette.