Award-winning journalist James Forlong hanged himself after losing his job as a reporter for Sky News, an inquest heard.

He resigned after admitting faking a report during the Iraq war.

But Brighton and Hove coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley said he should not be remembered just for that one error.

Mr Forlong's wife Elaine did not attend the hearing but in a statement said: "My husband was a good and gentle man.

"The manner of his death was a terrible shock - one I could not have predicted and perhaps will never understand."

Mr Forlong, 44, had resigned from his position as defence and royal correspondent at Sky News in July after being accused by the BBC of fabricating a report.

It purportedly showed a missile being fired by a Royal Navy submarine at Baghdad. But the vessel was docked at the time, the pictures were library stock and sequences had been staged.

He said at the time the fake report was a "single lapse of judgement" and a "source of deep regret".

Mrs Forlong found her husband hanging from the closing mechanism of his study door at the family home in Barrowfield Drive, Hove, early on October 4.

She told police: "We had eaten late that night and were both exhausted. James went upstairs before me, I assumed to play computer games to take his mind off things, which he often did.

"At 2am I was awoken by my son and I went to the study to get James.

"I couldn't open the study door. I realised something was blocking it.

"I pushed harder and that's when I discovered James. I immediately called the emergency services."

The inquest heard Mrs Forlong tried to resuscitate her husband and paramedics also tried to revive him but Mr Forlong was pronounced dead at 2.40am.

Pathologist Dr Andrew Rainey said the cause of death was hanging. Marks on his skin matched those on a black leather belt wrapped around his throat. His blood alcohol level was low.

Recording a verdict of suicide, the coroner said: "Even though there were no notes left and, as far as Mrs Forlong was concerned, her husband's death was shocking and unexpected, I am quite satisfied he did intend to take his own life.

"He was a journalist who had lost his job a few months before he died. The loss of his job in those circumstances was obviously very important.

"He was an award-winning journalist and had reported from many of the world's war-torn and desperate areas.

"He made a mistake and as a result lost his job and one of his passions in life. We all make mistakes in life and he acknowledged his.

"He should not be remembered for that single mistake, but his dedicated, professional and accurate work over many years."

Mr Forlong's career began at the West Sussex County Times before he moved to The Argus. He became a BBC radio reporter and switched to television in 1988, joining ITN then Sky News in 1993.