A psychiatric patient was found hanged in a hospital toilet the day after he returned from spending Christmas with his family, an inquest heard.

Married father-of-one Andrew Clayton had seemed "jovial and happy" when he returned to ward four of Airedale Hospital at Steeton near Keighley on December 27, 2001. But the hearing was told that his body was discovered by staff later that night.

The jury inquest in Bradford was told yesterday that Mr Clayton, 27, had been admitted to the hospital earlier that month after threatening suicide.

Hospital psychiatrist Dr Fiona McKenzie said Mr Clayton was admitted on a voluntary basis, but may otherwise have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act as he had self-harmed before and had twice taken overdoses.

"Things had built up and there was a feeling that things weren't getting better at home," Dr McKenzie said.

But Mr Clayton's mother and father, Gordon and Diana Darley said that their son was "inconsolable" when he was first admitted.

In a statement read out by coroner Roger Whittaker, they added: "It was his worst nightmare."

The inquest was told Mr Clayton had seemed to be making good progress at Airedale. It was decided that he should be allowed back to the family home in Main Street, Wilsden, for Christmas.

His wife Jill took him back to hospital after the Christmas break and the pair then went out for a drink to a local pub. "He asked me to take him home with me, but we both knew he had to go back to hospital," she said in a statement.

At around 8.50pm that night he sent her a text message saying "I love you with all my heart and I'm sorry."

The nurse in charge of ward four that night, Kate Chartres, said she had seen Mr Clayton when he returned from the pub. "He appeared to be jovial and happy," she said.

But she said that at around 10pm the alarm was raised when one of the toilet doors had been locked and there was no response from the person inside.

Miss Chartres added: "One of the other patients said 'I hope Andy's all right, he said he was going to go to the toilets and hang himself with bed sheets'."

When she managed to open the door she saw that was what had happened.

The inquest is expected to last until tomorrow.