A PAEDOPHILE deputy headteacher hanged himself a day after being questioned by police, an inquest found.

Martin Goldberg, of Thorpe Hall School, in Wakering Road, Southend, was found in his garage.

An inquest at Chelmsford Coroner’s Court heard a colleague raised the alarm with police after Goldberg didn’t come in to work on September 10, 2014.

Two members of staff were sent to check on him and the emergency services were called.

Coroner’s officer Laura Howard told the inquest: “On September 9, he was spoken to as part of an investigation into alleged criminal offences of voyeurism.

“On September 10, he was found in his garage hanging.

“He had not turned up for work.

when a colleague got no answer he contacted the police.”

A post mortem confirmed the findings.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

Coroner McGann recorded a verdict of suicide.

She said: “This is enough to tell me he certainly may well have thought he had reason to die.

“ I, therefore, am satisfied, so I’m sure that he intended to die. Martin Goldberg took his own life.”

It was another 20 days before it was revealed Goldberg, 46, was under police investigation after officers found 1,500 indecent images of pupils at his home in Dalwood, Shoebury. It is thought he had been secretly filming children at the school and at Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre, at Garon Park, Southend, for more than a decade.

The inquest heard toxicology tests on Goldberg’s body found “nothing untoward”

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is now investigating how staff at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre handled intelligence about hundreds of suspected paedophiles in July 2012.

Thorpe Hall School has been cleared of any safety breaches.

Both the NSPCC and abuse charity Enough Abuse have said the school was not to blame for failing to suspect Goldberg of any wrongdoing.