A MAN who lost his job after being falsely accused of a horrific sex crime has been found hanged in a shed.

Ian Adams, 51, of Aldriche Way, Highams Park, was working at Ikea, in Edmonton. He was a trolley collector for contractor Symonds Hydroclean.

He had been promoted to a supervisory position but less than two months into his job, he was told that Ikea had barred him from the store because of a letter it received. He was later sacked by Symonds.

The letter alleged that Mr Adams had raped a woman and her two children, but he had never been arrested or convicted of a sexual offence and the police told the Guardian they had received no complaints against him.

As we reported at the time, the name and address in the letter were fake and the writer falsely claimed to work at the Guardian.

Since Mr Adams was sacked in January his life had gone on a downward spiral.

He told the Guardian a few weeks ago that he had started drinking again, after a spell of relative sobriety while he was working, and was also taking anti-depressants and sleeping pills.

His drinking led to problems with his partner and he spent the last few nights of his life sleeping in a storage shed at the bottom of the block of flats in which he lived.

A neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: "If it wasn't for that letter he would still be here, I am sure of it.

"He was happy and full of himself when he was working, he was more or less dancing on his way to work. But he went from working all day to doing nothing.

"He went down and down, poor chap, and we should have seen the warning signs."

Another neighbour Darren Lupton, 34, said: "He was doing well, he was off the drink for a long time when he had the job, but when he lost it he was devastated."

At the time, Symonds and Ikea appeared to blame each other for Mr Adams losing his job.

Ikea claimed that it had only suspended him from the premises until Symonds had carried out an investigation, while Symonds claimed that it had no choice but to let him go because Ikea would not let him work on its premises.

The Symonds contract has now been taken back in-house by Ikea.

Ambulance staff tried to resuscitate Mr Adams, but he was pronounced dead at the scene at 11.31am on Monday.

Police are not treating the death as suspicious.