A special forces soldier had gathered the means to end his life days before he died, an inquest heard.

Corporal Alexander Tostevin told a community psychiatric nurse he had been thinking about ending his life and had organised ways to do it.

The 28-year-old, who was a member of the Special Boat Service, was found dead at his home in Poole, Dorset in March 2018.

Dorset Coroner’s Court has heard how Cpl Tostevin, from Guernsey, was left alone on the weekend he died with just a list of phone numbers for support.

The soldier had been on restricted duties and was facing disciplinary action following an incident the previous September, when he had gone absent without leave and used a military credit card to buy cocaine and hire a prostitute.

After going Awol, Cpl Tostevin had been assigned a welfare officer and was regularly seeing a community psychiatric nurse and a Royal Navy psychiatrist.

The nurse told the inquest he saw Cpl Tostevin regularly for meetings from September 2017 until his death and said he had low mood, anxiety and problems sleeping, and was receiving low intensity psychotherapy.

Referring to his notes from a meeting in September, the witness said: “No current suicidal ideation plans or intent, but he admitted to carrying around two boxes of (name of tablets) in his backpack with the intention of taking an overdose if he ever got to the point where he couldn’t carry on.

“He voluntarily gave me a box of 16 tablets which I will hand over to the pharmacy technician for disposal.

“He doesn’t know where the other box is but assured me he has not taken any of the missing tablets.

“No previous history of deliberate self-harm. He admitted increased alcohol consumption since his court case in April this year, where he was fined £10,000 for ABH.

“Strong protective factors – grandmother, girlfriend and a couple of his work colleagues.”

By January, Cpl Tostevin was feeling a “bit frustrated with the waiting game” over disciplinary action and wanted it dealt with so he could move on.

Later that month the soldier admitted to the nurse he was having “fleeting suicidal thoughts”.

Dorset area coroner Brendan Allen suggested to the witness that by five days before Cpl Tostevin died there was a “plan” to die.

The nurse replied: “I was chatting to him – and he was not planning on acting on those suicidal thoughts.”

He said there was a plan for Cpl Tostevin to be admitted to a hospital for further assessment having been given a likely diagnosis of bi-polar disorder by a psychiatrist.

The nurse told the hearing that a childhood friend had been staying with Cpl Tostevin at his flat but returned to his home in London three days before he died – leaving him alone.

Reading from his notes of a meeting on March 15, the nurse said: “Working diagnosis of bi-polar disorder. No significant change reported yesterday, and he is still trying to make sense of the revised diagnosis and what it means for him.

“On the other hand, he felt relieved when he was told he might be suffering from bi-polar. He also admitted he played down his symptoms and he was more focused on being returned to his troop.”

The hearing continues.