The carbon monoxide fumes from the burning charcoal killed popular teacher Jed Holmes, it was revealed at an inquest yesterday.

Mr Holmes chose the bizarre method of killing himself on the day before Government inspectors were due to arrive at Hampton Hargate Primary School in Peterborough.

Special Report: Jed Holmes
Hampton Hargate Primary School headteacher Jed Holmes was found dead in his city home on July 11, 2007.
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Colleagues revealed later that he had seemed unusually calm about the impending inspection, although he was worried that the school would not get such a glowing report as it had when it was last inspected in 2003, because it had grown with the new city community and had taken in more pupils.

Police found Mr Holmes dead, laying face down on the floor in his smoke-filled home at Welbourne, Werrington, Peterborough, after worried colleagues had raised the alarm.

The barbecue was in a corner of the room and the coals had burned to ash which were still warm. All the doors and windows were closed and a quantity of medication was found on a table in the room.

No note was found and an inspection of Mr Holmes' computer revealed no clues to his actions. The inquest at Peterborough Magistrates' Court heard how Mr Holmes (53) had been suffering from depression and had been off work in February and March.

His GP, Dr Neil Sanders, had prescribed him a number of anti-depressants but had last seen him on May 1 after he seemed to be in a more upbeat mood. However, the divorced stepfather of two had shown some odd behaviour in the days leading up to his death on July 11.

His step daughter Karen Rodger, of Lakeview Way, Hampton Hargate, said he had hugged her two-year-old son when they visited him at school on the Monday before his death.

She said: "That was an unusual thing for him to do. He wouldn't normally hug my children, or my sister or me."

She added: "He was really proud. A proud man and private. He wouldn't like to think he would be burdening you so you would never know if anything was wrong.

"He was always stressed in his job, it didn't seem anything out of the ordinary to us. We were used to seeing him like that."

But she said she and her sister Jane were "shocked at the disarray" in his home when they visited after his death. She said it was very untidy.

Deputy headteacher Sarah Moss told the inquest he was "surprised" at Mr Holmes' reaction to the impending Ofsted Inspection when he was told the inspectors would be arriving in three days time.

She said: "Jed didn't have his usual reaction to this news. I was surprised, he was very calm when he talked to the staff and quite relaxed about it. It was unusual because he used to quite relish the challenge and panic a little bit. A lot of the staff commented on it.

"The recent school results were not as good as last year or as we'd hoped. I got the impression he was very worried about the inspection."

When asked how she thought the school would have fared in the Ofsted, Ms Moss said: "It wouldn't have been as good, as glowing, as the first one.