AN AMBITIOUS student hanged himself from the staircase in his university accommodation the day after his exam results came out.

Rajiv Aryal, 19, who was studying astrophysics, locked himself in his house when he was home alone on July 13.

His friends and girlfriend grew concerned after not having heard from him the entire day.

Rajiv, who studied at the University of Sussex, had become more and more anxious leading up to his death and he was feeling nervous about his results, an inquest in Brighton heard.

University friend Connor Wakefield decided to head to Rajiv’s house himself later that night after not hearing from him all day.

After failing to enter the locked front door, he managed to find some open sliding doors around the back of the building in Halland Road, Brighton.

He turned on a few lights after getting inside and found Rajiv hanging from the bannister at 9.40pm.

Mr Wakefield dialled 999 straight away and the ambulance arrived within minutes, an inquest heard.

Doctors concluding Rajiv had been dead for quite some time.

The police arrived at the scene and confirmed there were no signs of any suspicious behaviour, the inquest heard.

Rajiv’s girlfriend Ellen Robinson told the hearing that he was “such a hard-working student” and he got “quite obsessed with studying” and “often said he was upset when he didn’t do well in his studies”.

She said he was “a lot more anxious than normal” leading up to his death, “put a lot of pressure on himself” and seemed “disappointed with his results” which came out on July 12.

Ellen also said he had “financial concerns” because he had “gone quite far in to his overdraft”.

During a postmortem, Rajiv was confirmed to be “a healthy young man” with “no signs of drugs or alcohol in his system” at the time of death, the inquest heard.

His father Laxmi Aryal, from London, said: “It has been a huge shock for all of us.

“His ambition was to become a scientist and I really felt he was going to become a great one.

“I don’t think he ever planned to take his own life.

“He had asked me for some financial help and I gave him a bit of money to support him.

“It seemed he was planning the future and where he was going to live after the summer holidays, so I don’t think he really thought about taking his own life.

“I did not think it would end like this.”

Mr Aryal told the court that his son experienced “low moods” in 2015 but these seemed to be “resolved” in the last few years.

Assistant East Sussex Coroner Catharine Palmer said the cause of death was hanging and his “high levels of anxiety” could be a potential contributing factor.

She told the court that he had clearly waited until his housemates had left the house before taking his life in order to not be disturbed.

She therefore concluded his death was “a deliberate act”, but there were no obvious contributing factors such as illness, drugs or a history of mental health.

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