THE stepfather of Prince Harry's on-off girlfriend took an overdose after “extensively” researching suicide and euthanasia online, an inquest in Salisbury heard.

The body of Christopher Shaw, 76, was discovered by his housekeeper at his rented flat in Cathedral Close, Salisbury, on January 17 just days after he had returned from holiday.

A post mortem found Mr Shaw, described as a father figure to Cressida Bonas in her formative years, had taken a fatal overdose of pentobarbitone, traditionally used in lethal injections.

The former merchant banker and Eton headboy had been married to Cressida's mother, Lady Mary Gaye Curzon, in the 1990s.

Housekeeper Nicola Smith, who had known Mr Shaw for 13 years and visited him daily, told the hearing in Salisbury yesterday (Thursday) that he had been told by his GP he only had two years left to live about six months earlier.

Miss Smith told the court she had previously found books on suicide in his quarters and he had said he wasn't prepared to go on dialysis for his kidney disease.

She was the last person to see him alive at around 11.45am the day before, after leaving to post his letters.

She returned the next day and found his body with Mr Shaw's landlord and friend Charles Bartlett, who lived in the building's basement, at 1.15pm.

Two small brown bottles were found in Mr Shaw's bedside drawer.

The inquest heard that while Mr Shaw would "stumble" and was "not in good shape", he still spent a lot of time in London working and had just returned from Cuba with his girlfriend.

PC James Nicholson told the court he found a 12-inch stack of papers from a euthanasia website, including monthly newsletters, at the property after Mr Shaw's death.

He said the label on the medicine bottles was written in Spanish and that one was empty, the other half full.

Recording a verdict of suicide, assistant coroner Claire Balysz said: "He had obviously researched suicide quite extensively.

"It is quite clear from the levels of drugs that he died from a fatal overdose.”

Reports from Mr Shaw's GPs stated he suffered from kidney disease and had been prescribed sleeping tablets.

The former Grenadier Guards and father-of-three was remembered in tributes by friends as a great party host.

During his career he was involved in publishing and worked as international adviser on the media for Goldman Sachs for three years. From 2001 he was senior partner of SP Merger Group.

Cressida, a former dance student who is recently believed to have rekindled her romance with Prince Harry, attended his packed funeral at Hinton Ampner, Hampshire.