A coroner has criticised bullies and websites talking about suicide following the death of a 24-year-old Mid Wales man.

The badly-burned body of Alun Evans was found on August 31 last year.

Mr Evans, from High Street, Llanfyllin, was discovered on an isolated road near the town.

A police search had already been under way after officers were called out when his mother found he was not at home and discovered a note left by him.

A verdict that Mr Evans had taken his own life was recorded at an inquest in Welshpool yesterday.

Deputy Coroner for Powys, Mr Huw Meredith, spoke out about the affect bullies could have on vulnerable people after he heard that Mr Evans, who it was believed had Asperger’s Syndrome tendencies, had been bullied at school.

It also emerged that Mr Evans had been visiting websites and internet chatrooms dealing with suicide shortly before his death.

Mr Meredith said: “Here was a young man who had a loving and caring family who gave support to him. He was a young man who had difficulties and it saddens me that in this day and age when you have someone who doesn’t fall within the ‘norm’, he is picked on.”

He added that Mr Evans had been looking on websites talking about suicide and he described them as “destructive”.

Mr Glyn Evans, Alun’s father, said a four-figure sum raised at the funeral had been donated to the Cambrian Heritage Railways and the Welsh Highland Railway in Snowdonia.