Pc David Rathband had spoken of his suicide, says 7/7 lover

The 44-year-old, who was blinded by gunman Raoul Moat, was found hanging at his home after the affair with Lisa French effectively ended his marriage, an inquest heard.

Mr Rathband had won national praise for the way he tackled his new disability, creating the Blue Lamp Foundation to help emergency workers injured at work.

But after attending the trial of two of Moat's accomplices in spring 2011, he lost motivation and had failed to adjust to losing his sight, his widow Kath told the inquest at Newcastle's Moot Hall yesterday.

In February 2012, he was found hanging at the three-storey townhouse in Blyth, Northumberland, he moved into following a domestic incident with his wife. Mrs Rathband, mother of 21-year-old Ash and Mia, 15, said her husband had several affairs with women, but his last with Lisa French, a survivor of the London bombing, ended their marriage.

"By this point it was my opinion our marriage was over due to David's level of deceit," the widow told the inquest.

She said she had always forgiven him for his previous affairs. "This was the one and only occasion I felt me and the kids had had enough," she said.

Both women gave evidence at the hearing, which was also attended by his two sisters and his father Keith.

Mrs Rathband found out about the friendship which started on Twitter had become more serious just days before her husband flew to Australia to visit his twin, Darren.

Mrs Rathband told the inquest he could not understand why she would not take him back, and would call her up to 100 times a day.

It became so bad she enlisted the support of the Domestic Violence Unit, she told the inquest. Mr Rathband, formerly of Stafford, would send abusive messages, and would sometimes threaten to self-harm. But his wife said the pattern was for him to send unpleasant messages to her but to be calm and rational when she spoke directly to him. From Australia, Mr

Rathband called her pretending to be a police officer announcing his death, and then said "You will see a fluorescent jacket at the door" – a reference to how the news would be broken.

She visited him for the last time on the evening he died and described him looking 'awful'. After she left him, he rang to tell her that "I wouldn't see him again," Mrs Rathband said.

Officers including his welfare officer Inspector John Heckles broke into his home and found him hanging.

Ms French told the hearing said he had expressed suicidal thoughts to her, but that he did not want to go through with it. "He fought bravely and courageously for the whole six months that I knew him," she said.

She had been worried about his welfare and had recommended he needed very specialist support, she added.

Before blasting the unarmed traffic officer, Moat shot and injured his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart, and killed her boyfriend, 29-year-old Chris Brown.

Moat shot himself in Rothbury, Northumberland, during a standoff with police at the end of a week-long manhunt.

The inquest continues.