A childless woman took her own life after a planned adoption went wrong.

Jacqueline Wells, 49, was found hanged her Otley home just weeks after pulling out of the adoption of a little boy.

An inquest heard she had planned to adopt the child along with her husband Phillip but they had become concerned the boy had quite severe learning difficulties which had not been properly assessed and they felt they were not the best parents for him.

They pulled out of the adoption on July 20 – the day he should have been moving in with them. Mrs Wells was found dead on September 5 – when she was due to go back to work as a nursery nurse after the summer holidays.

The Leeds inquest heard the couple, who had been getting to know the little boy gradually, were devastated by the failure of the planned adoption and hoped to go back into the process to adopt another child in a few months.

But Mrs Wells, who had a history of depressive episodes, struggled to cope and was prescribed anti-depressants by her doctor, who also suggested counselling.

Coroner David Hinchliffe said: “The whole experience had a huge impact on them. They were both devastated by what had happened because they had waited so long for this and when it came down to it they decided that this little boy wasn’t the right child.”

He told the family: “If I offer you any comfort at all, because of what she did she would have been unconscious within seconds, and her death would have occurred within minutes.”

He said in his view she was probably suffering from reactive depression – which could be like a bereavement – because of the issues with adoption.

“I know that struggling to have a baby and going through the various processes is very, very hard,” he said.

He told the Leeds inquest adoption could be a very difficult process, adding: “It must have been a very fraught time for you both in terms of IVF and going though this procedure. In Jackie’s case I think that has taken its toll.”

He added: “Often people do things like this quite impulsively and I think that is what she did.”

He said he was satisfied she had taken her own life.