A MOTHER of two stabbed herself in the stomach three times after suffering from depression.
Alison Mottershead was found in the bath at her Meltham home by her estranged husband, who was concerned about her.
The 42-year-old had suffered with depression after the death of her father and post-natal depression after the birth of her second child, both in 2005.
Doctors were treating her condition, but her estranged husband, Graham Mottershead, told an inquest into her death that she had previously said she wanted to kill herself.
On May 2 this year she carried out her threat, stabbing herself three times in the stomach.
Mr Mottershead said: “I’ve thought about this many times since but there was nothing I could do to revive her.”
The couple had lived in Birkby for 11 years before moving to Meltham.
By late 2007 the couple had split up and she moved out of the family home.
But by early 2008 the teaching assistant returned and her husband moved out.
On May 2 this year, he broke into the house after being told she had not turned up to work.
He found her in the bath with a kitchen knife nearby.
A post-mortem revealed three stab wounds to her abdomen and the cause of death was given as hypovolaemic shock, heart failure due to blood loss from the stab wounds.
Toxicology reports showed she drank the equivalent of five pints of beer or nine single measures of spirit before stabbing herself.
Coroner Roger Whittaker said: “She can only have intended to take her life by stabbing herself in the serious way she did.”
He recorded a verdict of took her own life while the balance of her mind was disturbed.
