London, November 20 : A 50-year-old British man beheaded himself using a chainsaw because he did not want to give up his repossessed home.

Winchester Coroner''s Court was told that David Phyall tied the chainsaw to a leg of a snooker table in his sitting room using string, taped up the on button, and plugged it into a timer.

He then laid face up under the snooker table putting the chainsaw against his neck, the court heard.

Phyall had had a small amount to drink, but he had not taken any drugs.

He used a piece of the tool''s cardboard box to cushion the blades from his neck, and set the timer to start up the chainsaw for 15 minutes.

The machine had sliced three-quarters through Phyall’s neck and into his right shoulder before being stopped by his T-shirt, which was dragged into the blades.

Phyall''s elderly parents, John and Jean Phyall, raised the alarm on July 5, when they could not get in touch with their son in his ground floor housing association flat in Bishopstoke.

Police were called, and they found Phyall with blood spattering the walls, floor and a cabinet in his sitting room.

"The electric chainsaw was embedded in his neck. The blade was approximately three quarters through his neck," Sky News quoted Sergeant Mark Carter as telling the hearing.

The court was also told that the block where Phyall had his flat was to be demolished.

It heard that the deceased had refused 11 offers of alternative accommodation, and eventually the housing association had gone to court to repossess the property.

The court also told that Phyall had been suffering from mental illness, and that he had attempted suicide before too.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Central Hampshire deputy coroner Simon Burge said that First Wessex Housing Group had done all that they could to help Phyall, but he was "irrationally opposed to moving". (ANI)