A Maldon man died after suffering blood loss an inquest has heard.

Daniel Maher, 46, was discovered by a friend in the bedroom of his home in Mount Pleasant in Maldon at 7pm on September 30.

Police initially treated his death as unexplained and launched an investigation.

At Essex Coroner’s Court in Chelmsford on Wednesday coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray recorded an open verdict.

The court heard Mr Maher’s cause of death was a haemorrhage and trauma caused by cutting off his genitals and partially severing his right hand.

Mr Maher, who was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 2008 and took medication, was found lying on top of a meat cleaver.

The court heard in the lead up to his death he had been drinking and taking drugs with his roommate and a friend.

He was found to have cocaine, MDMA and cannabis in his system but there were no traces of his medication.

DCI Stephen Jennings, who led the investigation, said it was unlikely Mr Maher had been taking his medication in the months leading up to his death.

After Mr Maher had finished drinking he left and went to his own room.

His roommate heard a scream at 7am in the morning, but said this was normal for Mr Maher due to his mental health issues.

Another friend went and checked on Mr Maher later that evening.

DCI Jennings said: “Mr Maher was found in the studio part of his room with a severe injury to his right hand – it had almost been severed off.

“A meat cleaver was found under his body.”

The injuries to his genitalia were later discovered but are believed to have been inflicted earlier in the day, as his private parts were never found.

The police did CCTV analysis, forensic work, a search of the scene, and door to door investigations to rule out any third party involvement.

A biologist was employed and using the blood trail put together a chronology to events.

DCI Jennings told the court Mr Maher had changed his clothes two or three times that day, suggesting the injuries to his genitalia had happened earlier in the day.

Mrs Beasley-Murrary said she could not be sure Mr Maher intended to take his own life and recorded an open conclusion.

She said: “Not all parts of the jigsaw are there. We don’t quite know what was going on in Mr Maher’s mind that evening.

“I want to express my sympathy to his half-sister and express my gratitude to DCI Jennings for all work in the run up to this inquest. It was obviously a very complex investigation.”