A CORONER has recorded an open verdict on the death of a 42-year-old Guisborough woman.

Helen Bell, an unemployed typist, of Trinity Court, had a history of depression, Teesside Coroner's Court heard yesterday.

She had also recently been badly affected by the sudden death of her brother-in-law.

Her husband Christopher told the inquest that she had seemed a little better in the days leading up to her death and had gone out for a drink with a friend the day before she died. He joined them later.

Mrs Bell had gone home after about two or three hours and did not seem to be in a good mood when her husband got home.

Mr Bell said: "After getting up the next morning she seemed to be okay. I went out in the afternoon and I phoned home. She said she did not feel very well, and so I went home.

"She told me later she had taken a lot of tablets and so I phoned for an ambulance."

Mrs Bell waited for the ambulance in an armchair, but became unconscious. She was taken to the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, where she died on June 8, last year.

Teesside coroner Michael Sheffield said: "She did consume a number of tablets she had been prescribed, but it is not clear she intended to die. It is possible she took the drugs for other purposes, to draw attention to herself or make someone feel sorry for her.

"She did not leave any notes and she did tell her husband she had taken the tablets before she lapsed into unconsciousness.

"She may have expected the consequence of that to be she received some treatment."