A YOUNG mum scratched a message of self-loathing on her own thigh before hanging herself, an inquest heard.

Just before she died, Nicola Filer sent a text to her estranged husband saying she was about to hang herself.

But she had previously told him so many lies that he did not believe her, the inquest in Cheltenham was told.

Mrs Filer, 29, of Phelps Mill Close, Dursley, was found dead on July 2 this year after her horrified young children found her hanging in the hallway and ran to tell a neighbour, Gloucestershire Deputy Coroner David Dooley was told.

The neighbour, Susan Rickards, said she and her husband were awoken in the early hours of the morning by loud knocking on their front door.

"We brought the children into the house and gave them a hug. Then we got our own children to look after them while we went to Nicola's house.

"I called out but there was no response and as I looked in through the door I saw her at the foot of the stairs. I thought she was just standing there but then realised she was hanging from the banisters."

Pc Nicholas French said he was called to the house and saw the words which had been scratched into Mrs Filer's thigh.

"The words were upside down as if she had done them herself," he said.

Mrs Filer's husband James, who was no longer living with her following a marriage break up, said: "We got back together again but she started self-harming and again showed signs of promiscuity and obsessional behaviour.

"She had counselling but we split up again because of her behaviour. I was still in regular contact with her and the children."

The evening after he left he ignored calls from her but also received text messages.

"Just before midnight, she said she was about to try to hang herself but I did not take it seriously," he said.

Mrs Filer's GP Cathy Curtis-Hayward said she had suffered from depression and had been under the care of the mental health team from 2003.

Summing up, Mr Dooley said Mrs Filer was a young mother with a long-standing mental health problem.

"Two elements of the case cause difficulties with a verdict of suicide," he said.

"I have to be sure she intended to cause her own death and to exclude all other possibilities.

"Her last text message is suggestive of a change of heart but she may not have been able to free herself."

He recorded a verdict of accidental death.