A GRIEVING family have begun legal action after an inquest ruled that a depressed mother killed herself hours after being allowed to leave a psychiatric hospital.

Anthony Coverdale believes his wife, Karen, would not have died if doctors at St Luke's Hospital, Middlesbrough, had answered his pleas and detained her. He said she had twice gone missing and had twice tried to commit suicide - the last time only two days before she disappeared.

But an inquest in Hartlepool heard yesterday that while he went to confront doctors over their decision, his wife of 22 years left their home.

Accompanied by a solicitor, Mr Coversdale, 43, of Cragside, Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, said after the hearing: "We would not have been at this inquest today if it was not for the hospital. The legal action begins now. I'm not doing this for financial gain - it's about the principle.

"Everybody trusts hospitals, and we did. We thought Karen was going to get better."

The mother-of-two disappeared on March 19, 2004. She had suffered mild depression for eight years, but more severely in the last six months.

Her car, containing a suicide note and her wedding rings, was found at North Gare, near Hartlepool, four days later. Her keys were found on a rock, but her body has never been found.

However, the Home Office gave coroner Malcolm Donnelly permission to hold an inquest, who said he had no doubt Karen killed herself.

"She had failed on two very recent occasions to do that," he said. On this final occasion, she plainly succeeded.

"I think my conclusion is unavoidable, but how she came to do that is not for me to speculate."

Mrs Coverdale's father, Peter Groom, 72, from Eaglescliffe, Stockton, said she was a loving wife, mother and daughter.

He said: "She should never have been released from hospital. She must have been in an awful state to leave behind what she did."

A spokesman for Tees and North East Yorkshire Mental Health Trust said: "Patient confidentiality prevents us from commenting on individual cases, however, we fully appreciate the distressing circumstances Mr Coverdale and his family have faced. We would like to offer them our most sincere sympathies and condolences."

* A memorial service for Mrs Coverdale will be held at 10.30am on Friday, February 17, at St John's Church, Butts Lane, Egglescliffe.