A YOUNG mum killed herself in her child's bedroom during a moment of 'emotional turmoil' a coroner has ruled.

Shelley Ann Lewis of Castlefields, Runcorn, hanged herself from a bunk bed with a dressing gown cord shortly after splitting from her partner.

The house-proud 26-year-old was desperate to make a new life for herself away from the area, her mum Jacklyn told the inquest, and had seemed 'bubbly' in the days before her death in November last year.

"She seem a little bit down but was coping," Mrs Lewis said.

"She'd bought herself a new sofa and had had a good night out with some of the family.

"She was fine as a person, bubbly, she was fine.

"Something must have happened for her to have done what she did," Mrs Lewis added.

"If there had been any talk of her killing herself, we wouldn't have left her alone."

Police were called to the Shepherds Row flat by Shelley's ex partner who was concerned there was no answer from inside and all the window blinds were down.

The inquest heard that Shelley had taken an overdose two months earlier but had discharged herself from hospital before psychiatric help arrived.

The PC who found her said there was nothing in her 'immaculate' house to suggest a struggle or any other suspicious circumstances and a post mortem examination revealed no evidence of a drug overdose.

Cheshire coroner Dr Richard Hunter said: "Goodbye letters written to her family show how devastated Shelley was at the end of an often stormy three-year relationship.

"It is obvious that she was in emotional turmoil and took her life when she wasn't thinking clearly and while the balance of her mind was temporarily upset."

The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.

nlakeman@worldgroup.co.uk