A FORMER Bury woman found hanged at her home in the Middle East took her life in the aftermath of a row with her boyfriend, an inquest heard.

Miss Christine Garford (39), who had been working as an art teacher at the British School in Oman, was found naked and suspended from a fan on October 3, 1998.

Intensive investigations by the Royal Oman Police showed there had been no signs of a struggle or third party involvement at the address in Madinat, Qaboos, the inquest in Bury was told on Friday (July 13).

Teaching colleague Ruth Park, who visited Miss Garford's flat two days before the body was found, said that Miss Garford had taken time off work following an intense argument with her boyfriend in Oman. She had taken some coaxing to open the door, said Miss Park, and had been incoherent and unsteady on her feet, as if she had been drinking or had taken pills. Miss Park said: "She kept saying that everything was such a mess. I tried to reason with her and to say he was just a bloke and it wasn't the end of the world."

After removing pills and alcohol from the house Miss Park made her friend promise to "forget about it all" and turn up for work on Saturday.

When she failed to do so, Miss Park returned to the flat with Miss Garford's boyfriend, James Bailey, where they found the body hanging.

Post mortem examinations showed deep ligature marks around the neck and superficial abrasions consistent with hanging, with asphyxiation recorded as the cause of death. Miss Garford, who was a former pupil at St Gabriel's High School, Bury, and lived in Cumbria, before moving abroad, had taken a quantity of tablets 18 months prior to her death after splitting up from a boyfriend.

But her sister, Kathleen Worrell, of Lichfield Drive, Bury, said there seemed to be no problems when they spoke in a telephone conversation two weeks prior to the incident.

Bury district coroner Mr Barrie Williams said that the lengths to which Miss Garford had gone had led him to discount the possibility that her actions were a cry for help, and recorded a verdict of suicide.