When Carlos Assaf was found hanged in his flat police were satisfied that it was a suicide. Then Mr Assaf’s ghost got involved.

Psychics told detectives that they had been contacted from beyond the grave. Far from having killed himself, Mr Assaf, a baker from Lampeter, west Wales, informed the mediums that he had been strangled by gangsters who forced him to drink petrol and bleach.

In their visions the psychics, who were friends of the dead man’s family, saw a lion, a horse and the name Tony Fox.

Determined to follow all possible leads, officers visited more than a dozen pubs called Red Lion or Black Horse and tracked down a certain Tony Fox. They conducted a second post-mortem examination and searched an area of Manchester after the mediums said that it could yield clues.

But the “lion, horse and fox investigation” was a wild goose chase, an inquest into Mr Assaf’s death was told yesterday. There was no bleach in Mr Assaf’s digestive tract, Mr Fox was eliminated from the inquiry and no leads turned up in the pubs.

The inquest in Aberystwyth heard that Mr Assaf, 32, a father of one, had hanged himself from a weight training bench after a row with his girlfriend in March. He had developed “bouts of anger” after becoming addicted to amphetamines.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Peter Brunton, the Ceredigion coroner, said: “There was a great deal of communication between the mediums and the police. A great deal of effort was expended in following these leads up.”

Sergeant Mark Webb, of Dyfed-Powys Police, defended the investigation. “We received communications from friends and family of Mr Assaf involving spiritualist mediums,” he told the hearing. “We interviewed the mediums and, having carried out an investigation, we found the information far from conclusive. We wanted to be absolutely satisfied there was no third party involved.”

However, one of his colleagues, who asked not to be named, said: “We are in danger of becoming a laughing stock. We went haring across the country looking for a lion, a horse and someone called Fox based on info from cranks. Not surprisingly it turned out to be a wild goose chase, which cost at least £20,000.”

Mr Assaf’s mother, Shirley, said: “There is no doubt in my mind now that my son took his own life.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Baroness Ashton: EU couldn’t make it up
• The other belles de nos jours
• Why too much of a good thing is bad for you