Detectives are investigating after a man was found hanged hours after a woman claimed she had been seriously sexually assaulted in a churchyard.

Police sealed off part of the graveyard beside St Mary the Blessed Virgin church in Gomersal after the woman reported she had been attacked.

The local woman, in her 30s, was not physically injured in the assault, but was said to be distraught and shocked by the attack in the early hours of Sunday morning.

On Sunday evening, a 53-year-old man was reported missing from his home in Gomersal by concerned members of his family and a major search was launched for him.

The West Yorkshire Police helicopter was deployed, with officers from the Operational Support Unit and neighbourhood policing teams, scouring countryside around the Shirley Grove area of Gomersal.

Police were alerted just after 8.30am on Monday after a dog walker discovered the body of the 53-year-old man hanging from a tree in a field off Gomersal Lane at Cleckheaton.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman yesterday confirmed: “We are investigating an allegation of serious sexual assault on a woman in her 30s, which is reported to have occurred in the early hours of September 18, in Butts Hill, Gomersal.”

The spokesman added: “At 8.37am on Monday, police were called to Gomersal Lane, in Cleckheaton, after a member of the public found the body of a 53-year-old man in a field.

“The man had earlier been reported missing from an address in Gomersal.

“The death is not being treated as suspicious and has been passed to the Coroner.”

The spokesman continued: “We are keeping an open mind as to the circumstances surrounding each incident, and whether they are linked.”

A spokesman for the Dewsbury Coroner’s Office last night said the dead man had been identified as Michael Leadbeater, 53, of Shirley Parade, Gomersal.

She said a post-mortem examination had taken place and confirmed Mr Leadbeater had died from hanging. An inquest is expected to be opened either tomorrow or Monday.