A LESBIAN affair ended in tragedy when a 40-year-old, unable to accept the relationship was over, took her own life.

Mandy Skinner gassed herself in her Renault Laguna, parked 200 yards from a lonely North Yorkshire road.

When she was discovered, a framed picture of her partner and a number of notes were found beside her.

An inquest at Richmond Magistrates' Court yesterday was told the tempestuous relationship began as a friendship but developed into something more serious. The couple lived together for a while.

However, the hearing was told Ms Skinner, of Meadowfield Drive, Darlington, remained "obsessive" about the affair - feelings which ran deeper then her unnamed partner's.

She had already made a number of attempts to kill herself.

Her car was found by a passer-by at the Willow Bridge Plantation, near Wathgill, between Richmond and Leyburn.

An ambulance was first on the scene, although it was too late to save Ms Skinner, who was already dead.

"The content of the notes, which were very lucid, makes it clear Ms Skinner's intention was to take her own life, and, therefore, I have to record a verdict of suicide," said Coroner Jeremy Cave.