A MOTHER died after she tried to cut her own head off with a circular saw in her husband’s carpentry workshop.

Christine Elliott, aged 54, was discovered by her husband, Philip Elliott, an inquest at Bolton Coroner’s Court heard.

The hearing was told Mrs Elliott, a former senior college lecturer, suffered from depression and anxiety, but she was not taking her prescribed anti-depressants at the time of her death.

Mr Elliott told the coroner that his wife had been anxious about several important aspects of her life — she was caring for her sick mother almost 24 hours a day, her sister-in-law had died and she missed her teenage daughter, to whom she was very close, but who had moved away to go to university.

Mrs Elliott died on October 29 last year in her husband’s workshop above the double garage at their home in Chorley New Road, Heaton. Mr Elliott works full time as a commercial controller, but also runs his own business as a property developer, and is keen on woodworking as a hobby.

A police investigation found that there was nothing suspicious about Mrs Elliott’s death. Home Office pathologist Dr Charles Wilson said the only explanation was that Mrs Elliott had deliberately caused her own death. She needed to defeat safety mechanisms on the saw in order to use it.

Mr Elliott said he did not believe that his wife intended to kill herself, but assistant deputy coroner Peter Watson disagreed, recording a verdict that she took her own life while the balance of her mind was disturbed.