AN INQUEST heard how a mother returned home from work to be confronted with the heartbreaking sight of her son hanging from the loft hatch.

Gifted student Kuldeep Cheema, of Lower Higham Road, Higham, near Rochester, was just 17 when he died on June 7 this year.

Dartford Coroner’s Court heard how the day started normally at the family home.

Det Insp Julia Chapman, of Gravesend Police, said Mrs Cheema left for work in the morning and Kuldeep was up and dressed, ready for school.

He had a maths exam at Gravesend Grammar School that morning, but was apparently unconcerned.

“Friends saw him at the exam and he spoke to a number of students afterwards and said he had found it easy. He said he had to go home and seemed in a rush,” Det Insp Chapman said.

At 2.05pm that day, Kuldeep exchanged MSN messages from home via his computer to a friend until 2.45pm when he failed to reply.

Det Insp Chapman said: “Mrs Cheema came home at 5pm and called out to Kuldeep, but there was no reply. Usually he would come rushing downstairs – but not that day.”

As Mrs Cheema climbed the stairs, she saw him hanging from an untied turban from the step ladder leading into the loft.

“She held him, spoke to him and tried to untie him but couldn’t,” Det Insp Chapman said.

She called an ambulance and he was taken to Darent Valley Hospital, but was declared dead.

Kuldeep lived at home with his mother and father. He had a gift for computer technology and had taken his maths GCSE at the age of 10. He had planned to study at Canterbury University and his ambition was to emulate Bill Gates.

Recording an open verdict, the coroner Roger Hatch said: “No suicide note was found and from all the evidence it seems Kuldeep was a content and brilliant student.”

He recorded an open verdict.