A POPULAR GP who had suffered from depression since his 20s asphyxiated himself with a plastic bag, an inquest in Oxford heard.

Father-of-two Dr David Scarfe, 47, who had worked at the Marston Medical Centre, in Cherwell Drive, Oxford, had twice attempted to kill himself prior to his death in December.

At the inquest, his psychiatrist, Dr Rob Bale, said Dr Scarfe had received a large tax bill and final divorce papers and came to him suffering from depression.

He said Dr Scarfe, of Little Orchard, Holton, near Wheatley, was a positive person with many interests, but that he was also a "worrier" and a "perfectionist".

Jayne Crowe, his partner of two years, said on one occasion in the weeks leading up to his death, he broke down in her arms in despair.

Ms Crowe said Dr Scarfe had left the medical centre in the summer, and had been working as a locum in Wheatley.

But during December he became increasingly depressed and on December 21, told his visiting mother that he was going upstairs to sleep. She found him dead several hours later.

Deputy Coroner Dorothy Flood said: "It must be a great loss to the medical profession that a committed GP felt that his own problems were so bad he had no other way."