Soccer star Fashanu 'left suicide note'

Justin Fashanu was the first British soccer player to profess his homosexuality

Former footballer Justin Fashanu, who was found dead after he had been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in the United States, left a suicide note, a coroner has heard.

The 37-year-old - rated in the early 1980s as one of British football's brightest young stars - was found hanged in a garage in London at the weekend.

At an opening inquest, London coroner Dr Stephen Ming Chan was told that Fashanu had gone to a set of garages used as a car park in Shoreditch, east London, leaving a note in a filofax in a bag nearby.

The contents of the note were not revealed.

On the run

Fashanu entered one of the garages through a hole in a wall and apparently hanged himself from a cross-beam, the inquest heard.

Wednesday's hearing was adjourned and a full inquest later will hear details of injuries found on Fashanu's wrists and the results of blood tests.

The former £1 million-rated Norwich City and Notingham Forest striker had returned to Britain from the United States, where he had fled his Maryland home after being questioned by local police about the alleged sexual assault.