A teenager hanged himself the day after a row with his girlfriend, an inquest heard.

Michael Shaw, 18, was found in the garden of his home in Devonshire Street, Keighley, five days before Christmas. A length of washing line, attached to a clothes post, was around his neck.

Neighbour Lawrence Craig told the Bradford hearing last Friday: "I lifted him to take away the weight and undid the line."

Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

Mr Shaw's girlfriend, Cheryl Taylor, said they had been experiencing problems. He had hit her the previous day when he seemed upset.

"He had mood swings," she said.

Consultant pathologist Philip Da Costa said in a statement that Mr Shaw, who died from asphyxia due to hanging, had taken an overdose of pain-killers on an earlier occasion.

Coroner Roger Whittaker, recording a suicide verdict, said: "There was no indication as to why he may have done this.

"I am satisfied, by the mechanism used, that he did intend to take his life."

A divorcee found dead in bed by her son had taken poison, an inquest heard.

Sheila Sayer, 64, had swallowed stry-chnine from bottles kept at her farmhouse to kill moles. A post mortem revealed Mrs Sayer, of Botany Farm, Morton, died from strychnine poisoning.

Her son John Sayer said in a statement that his mother kept herself to herself and had become increasingly depres-sed.

Mr Whittaker recorded a suicide verdict.

A man who was found slumped in bed with his head between his knees died from an overdose of painkillers.

Christopher Burrows, who had made several attempts to overcome a drinking problem, was discovered by his partner at her Guard House home.

An inquest heard that 36-year-old Mr Burrows, of Bank-field Road, was taken to Aire-dale Hospital but died nine days later.

A post mortem revealed that he died from brain and heart damage caused by the painkillers.

Mr Whittaker, who said that there was no evidence Mr Burrows intended to take his own life, recorded an open verdict.

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