Bailiffs evicting a mentally-ill woman from her home found her dead, an inquest has heard.

On the day social landlord Incommunities went to remove 52-year-old Beryl Hanson she had already suffocated herself.

Miss Hanson had previously gone to court to fight a re-possession order and keep her home at Foston Close in Fagley but the judge ruled against her.

A letter had been sent to Miss Hanson telling her the date and time of the eviction and that letter was later found at her address, the Bradford inquest was told today.

Miss Hanson, who was unemployed and lived alone, was on prescribed medication for her health problems but there were indications she had not been taking them. She had obsessive compulsive disorder and paranoid personality disorder.

Although she had never talked to helpers about taking her own life, she had spoken passively about “dying from a broken heart through the actions of other people”.

And although arrangements had been made for her to move into temporary housing after the eviction, her housing situation had been “a significant stress” because she believed she was not housed appropriately,” the inquest was told.

It also heard how officials turned up at Miss Hanson’s home on January 22 this year but could not get a reply when they knocked. When they broke in, Miss Hanson’s body was found fully-clothed on a bed.

A note was also found near her body. Bradford Coroner Roger Whittaker said: “From it one would not know that she was being evicted. Effectively it was saying that she could not take the pain any more.”

The post mortem gave the cause of death as asphyxia.

Mr Whittaker said: “Beryl Hanson took her own life while the balance of her mind was disturbed.”