A man, who threatened to kill himself after he saw his two children he had been separated from for more than ten months, took his life in the presence of his children and police in Erin on Sunday.

Arthur Joseph, a house-builder, slit his throat, wrists, and stabbed himself in the stomach causing his intestines to fall out. He died on arrival at the San Fernando General Hospital.

A close relative of Joseph, who asked not to be identified yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre, in St James said Joseph had made a promise to one of his sons that he had with his married wife, that once he got an opportunity to see his children, he would kill himself.

According to the relative, on Sunday, Joseph who used to sleep at a pavilion in Siparia after a restraining order was taken out against him, causing him to leave his home, went to the house he built at La Union Road, Carapal Village, Erin and spoke briefly with his three children.

He summoned his wife, with whom he had three children aged eight, ten and 15, to come to the home. The woman later arrived with officers from the Erin Police Station. Joseph, the relative added, began to hurl objects at the officers.

"They wanted to shoot him, but somebody begged for him and the officers did not shoot him. He (Joseph) said before that all he wanted to do was see his kids and tell them good bye then he would kill himself and that is exactly what he did after he saw them for the first time in ten months."

He slit his wrists, then his throat and took a knife and plunges it in his stomach and took a brick and pounded it in, right in front of the police and the children.

"He had complained bitterly that he wasn't able to live in his own house that he built and he couldn't see his children. He had enough and he was really fed-up and like he couldn't take it no more and something has to be wrong with him to do that to himself," the relative said.

Police said Joseph, 51, was depressed following an argument with his wife at the weekend. Officers said they also received information that Joseph had threatened to kill his three kids and his wife.