TWO police officers who stopped a man on the M62 in the hours before he was found hanged in woodland have told an inquest his demeanour did not concern them.

Colin Harding’s car was located by an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera as he travelled back from Blackpool on Saturday, August 1, 2015.

His wife, Emma Harding, had reported him missing the previous day after he had sent her a text message saying: “Life is a rollercoaster and it’s time I got off. Bye, babe.”

The 39-year-old, of Gwynne Avenue, Thornbury, had switched his phone off and West Yorkshire Police began searching the local area and taking other steps to locate him.

His MG car was spotted the following day on the M60 and PC Martin Slater and PC Stephen Bielizna, from Greater Manchester Police, were despatched to stop the father-of-two and check his welfare.

“He was absolutely normal – calm, understanding of the situation as to why I stopped him,” said PC Slater, on the second day of the inquest into Mr Harding’s death.

The pair spoke to him on the hard shoulder of the Junction 22 eastbound sliproad before Mr Harding was asked to sit in PC Slater’s car while the officers informed West Yorkshire Police they had found him.

But PC Slater did not hear anything from the force for 58 minutes and allowed Mr Harding to go on his way because PC Slater thought he was “fit, safe and well and had no concern for his safety”.

PC Slater added: “We talked about our interests.

“We talked about hobbies and pets. It was a completely normal conversation.”

Earlier in the day, PC Barbara Ali told the hearing how she was dispatched to an address in Baildon on July 31, 2015, after Mrs Harding told police her estranged husband had sent her the rollercoaster text message.

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PC Ali and another officer spent two hours at the home, read the message and questioned Mrs Harding about her husband’s behaviour so they could fill out a West Yorkshire Police missing person form.

The officer told the inquest this information made her conclude he was a “medium risk”.

When coroner Philip Holden asked her why Mr Harding was given this rating, despite him sending what PC Ali described as a “strange” message, she replied: “I believed Mr Harding’s risk was likely, but not serious. I believe that the risk of concern to Mr Harding was not imminent and I believed it was medium risk. There was an air of concern for him.”

Mr Harding’s body was found on the morning of August 2 in Wood Nook, Denholme, by a runner.