tried to take his own life, a Coroner's Inquest has heard.

And a close friend and colleague of Tony Bukhari said the Policeman was a changed man after girlfriend Elizabeth (Liz) Cadell died from a massive drugs overdose in mysterious circumstances.

Bukhari discovered Cadell's naked body in the bedroom of their Harvey Hill Road apartment on May 31 last year.

At an inquest into the death yesterday, fellow police officer and close friend David Allen said the death had affected Bukhari badly.

And he recounted to the inquest how he had to rush him to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital earlier this year after a depressed Bukhari swallowed about forty pills in a bid to take his own life.

He had left a suicide note in his police barracks apartment along with another letter to detectives accusing them of "stitching me up''.

Bukhari was detained in hospital for several days but eventually made a full recovery.

"Ever since Liz's death he just wasn't his normal self,'' P.c. Allen said.

"He used to cry from time to time and dates like her birthday he found hard.

"He used to mention how upset. He couldn't believe Liz had done this and he found it difficult to accept that she wasn't going to be around.'' Pc Allen also described Cadell as "vivacious, personable, friendly and easy going''.

"But there were occasions when she could be quite insecure and nervous'' he said.

The inquest also heard a record, read out in court, of an interview between Bukhari and senior officers, which took place after Police became suspicious about his version of events.

In the interview Chief Inspector Carlton Adams asked Bukhari why he failed to answer his pager on three separate occasions when Ms Cadell tried to contact him hours before she died.

And he said: "I am going to suggest to you that you did not get home from Catherine Brewer's house in the early hours of the morning.

"You went home much later, discovered her body and felt guilty about not answering your pager and realised that she had been trying to contact you as she was in a state of depression.'' Bukhari, who had been cautioned before the interview began, replied: "That's incorrect''.

In the interview he also admitted that Ms Cadell had changed her will after the couple became engaged, making him heir to a $350,000 fortune.

But he insisted that the inheritance would be passed on to members of Ms Cadell's family.

He also said that, given another opportunity, he might have acted differently when he first found out that Ms Cadell had taken 150 pills.

"It's easy to criticise a person,'' he said.

Question marks were also raised in the interview about the whereabouts of a Dictaphone. When Police first searched the house on the day of the incident Bukhari told a colleague he had to recover a Dictaphone otherwise detectives might use it to incriminate him. Later that day he claimed that he was referring to a telephone answering machine.

But in the later interview with Chief Inspector Adams he did say that he owned a Dictaphone and that was what he was originally referring to.

Bukhari could be charged with manslaughter by negligence if a jury at the inquest rules that he could have done more to save his girlfriend's life.

Police who arrived at the scene shortly after Bukhari raised the alarm claim they were instantly suspicious about the circumstances of the death.

And forensic evidence provided at the inquest also contradicts Bukhari's version of events.

Tony Bukhari