Former Glee star Mark Salling commits suicide

Mark Salling has reportedly hanged himself, reports TMZ.

The Glee star’s body was found on Tuesday near a little league field close to his Sunland home. He was 35 at the time of his death.

‘I can confirm that Mark Salling passed away early this morning,’ his family said in a statement to The Blast.

‘Mark was a gentle and loving person, a person of great creativity, who was doing his best to atone for some serious mistakes and errors of judgment. He is survived by his mother and father, and his brother. The Salling family appreciates the support they have been receiving and asks for their privacy to be respected.’

Salling was awaiting sentencing after entering a guilty plea to possession of child pornography.

The LAPD were alerted to the body by a 911 call at 8.50am. At 9.47am, the fire department found Salling near a little league field next to the Big Tujunga Creek, close to the actor’s home. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

His body is still at the scene while officials carry out their investigation, TMZ reports.

The actor had already made a suicide attempt last summer, when he cut both of his wrists, according to a report.

Salling is said to have ‘freaked out’ after hurting himself on August 22.

He is thought to have been taken to hospital after paramedics treated him in his Los Angeles home. According to TMZ, he had screamed for his roommate after cutting his wrists. The roommate then called 911 and helped him.

The actor was reportedly taken to be treated for psychological problems after he recovered.

Salling ‘downloaded thousands of images of child pornography’ between April and December 2015. The papers state he used software to mask his IP address, but twice showed some of his collection to an adult woman, who ultimately reported him to police.

Following the tip-off, Salling was arrested at his home in Sunland, California, where police found a cache of explicit images on his computer depicting children as young as 10 in sexual situations. They later discovered more than 50,000 photos and videos on his laptop and another 4,000 on a flash drive.

The actor was originally facing a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars after being charged with two counts of child pornography last year.

Salling took a plea deal in December, where he pleaded guilty to possessing images of prepubescent children between the ages of three and five. Prosecutors in response, agreed to ask the judge to sentence him to between four and seven years in jail.

At the time of the hearing, he told the judge he was on medication for depression.