A 999 operator has admitted she should have given a phone call the highest priority after she learnt a man had confessed to taking 100 pills in a text message.

Michelle Bemrose, a call handler for West Yorkshire Police in Bradford, was one of several operators, police officers and dispatchers to speak to Colin Harding's family after he went missing on July 31, 2015.

An inquest into the 39-year-old's death, on August 2, 2015, heard from Ms Bemrose, who spoke to Emma Harding on the second day her husband was missing from home.

Two Greater Manchester Police officers had stopped Mr Harding on his way back from Blackpool at lunchtime before letting him go on his way, however, he did not return home despite telling the police that is where he was going.

The inquest heard how he instead went to Wood Nook, in Denholme, and sent messages to his wife, sister-in-law and lover.

In one message sent to his sister-in-law, he revealed he had taken 100 pills, but they had "not worked" and it was "time for Plan B".

This information was relayed to his wife, who called 999 and spoke to Ms Bemrose.

Ms Bemrose told coroner Philip Holden that she had read a West Yorkshire Police log which informed her Mr Harding had been found at lunchtime on August 1, and she was not sure what to do with the new information.

Instead of adding it to the existing log, she told the inquest the information was graded as 'Standard' and not 'Emergency'.

She said: "So I could get the information over as quickly as I could, I sent the message to Leeds District Control Room.

"Although the grading was 'Standard', I wanted to get the message over as quickly as I could for a decision to be made.

"With hindsight, and the training I've had since, I appreciate it was a completely different incident and I should have graded this on its own merits.

"I would have graded it firstly as a missing person and then as an emergency, and that's with hindsight and experience."

Mr Harding was never seen alive by his family again and found hanged in woodland on August 2.

Ms Bemrose told the court she has received more training since the incident, but no longer does the same job she did in 2015.

She told the coroner the training she received for her job as a 999 call handler was "generic" and did not cover specific situations people in the control room could be faced with.

She added: "I was worried about the training.

"I didn't feel like it was tailored enough to specific things that might come up."