A HAMPSHIRE serviceman shot himself after returning from Iraq, where he had to retrieve bodies of British sailors killed when two helicopters crashed, an inquest heard.

Stephen Osborn told his wife Louise he found the job of picking up the bodies of the six Royal Navy officers who died "unbelievably horrendous".

The chief petty officer's body was found in isolated woodland by Mrs Osborn on June 7 this year, seven weeks after he returned from four months' service in the Gulf conflict.

He had shot himself once in the head with his own rifle.

CPO Osborn, 53, who served in the Navy for 35 years, held a licence for three shotguns, was a keen member of the Royal Navy Gun Club and regularly shot with colleagues in woods on the Rookesbury Estate, North Boarhunt.

Mrs Osborn, of Brook Avenue, told how she was hysterical after finding her husband of 25 years lying face up in the woods with "massive injuries" to his face and his double-barrelled shotgun by his side.

Giving evidence, the 52-year-old nurse said her husband was on a week's holiday from work and she left him in the house while she went shopping.

When she returned he had gone. After making phone calls to his friends and mother, Mrs Osborn drove to the woods where he practised and found him down a track, lying on his back.

She told the inquest: "I saw there were massive injuries to the right side of his head. There was a lot of blood and then I knew he was dead.

"I was totally shocked and hysterical and I drove to a friend's house who lives nearby to call the police."

Speaking about the effect of the March 22 collision on her husband, she said: "Stephen didn't want to talk about it much but he did say it had affected him and he found it unbelievably horrendous."

Friends of the chief petty officer revealed he had also been worried about a pending investigation relating to a "minor incident" he was involved in while in Iraq.

The inquest was told that Mr Osborn had allegedly struck a rating in an argument over damage that the fellow serviceman had reputedly caused to one of the ship's cabins - but that the incident was a "relatively minor altercation".

CPO Osborn was a weapons engineer deployed to the Gulf on board RFA Diligence.

The ship was assigned the task of recovering the bodies of the airman from the Sea King collision, a process which took several weeks to complete.

Deputy coroner Simon Burge recorded a verdict of suicide.

Speaking after yesterday's inquest, Royal Navy spokesman Captain Alistair Halliday said: "The Royal Navy deeply regrets CPO Osborn's death. The thoughts of Stephen's friends and colleagues in the Navy are with his family at this difficult time."

Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression can prove a major problem for service men and women.

In an interview with the Daily Echo this week former guardsman Simon Weston, who survived the bombing of RFA Sir Galahad in Bluff Cove, said: "What we really need to do is have more care facilities, not just for service people."