A mum-to-be killed herself amid fears that her unb

A mum-to-be killed herself amid fears that her unborn baby would be deformed, an inquest heard today (THURS).

Tragic Clare Gibbons, 25, hung herself with a washing line when she was just one month pregnant.

The night before her death, she had contacted her mother and said she was ‘bothered’ about the baby.

Miss Gibbons had been told there was the possibility that a recently-fitted coil could harm the child.

A horrified friend found her hanging from a door in his flat.

Southwark Crown Court in south London heard how business administrator Miss Gibbons fell pregnant by boyfriend Paul in April this year.

But doctors warned her that a ‘hormonal’ coil – fitted in a bid to balance her hormones – might damage the baby.

Miss Gibbons’ mother Zofia, of Preston, Lancs, told how her daughter was troubled by the possibility of facing an abortion or a deformed baby.

She told the inquest: ‘Clare had been told she could not get pregnant and may be infertile, so when she fell pregnant she became worried.

‘She was about a month pregnant and was over the moon about it.

She said if the baby was damaged she was not too happy about considering a termination, which she had been told to consider.

‘I spoke to her the night before she died, and she did say she was still bothered about the baby.

‘

On May 2 this year, Miss Gibbons went for a drink in London’s Soho with pal Peter Fox.

They went back to his house in Wickham Road, Brockley, south London, for a coffee, and Miss Gibbons ended up staying the night.

The following morning she told Mr Fox she was going to phone in sick, and he went to work.

When he returned that night, Mr Fox discovered Miss Gibbons dead.

He wept as he told the hearing: ‘I opened the front door and went in.

I saw a rope on the living room door.

I thought ”Great trick, Clare, I’m not going to fall for the bucket of water thing”.

‘I pushed the door and it wouldn’t open.

I pushed it a bit harder, and put my head round and saw her on the back of the door.

I had to cut her down.

‘

The court heard Miss Gibbons had been on medication for acne which can very occasionally lead to depression and suicide attempts.

But she had stopped taking it a year before the death, and coroner Selena Lynch ruled out any connection.

Miss Gibbons, of Melbourne Grove, East Dulwich, south London, had a history of depression from the age of 13 and had taken five overdoses in the past.

Recording a verdict of suicide while the balance of her mind was disturbed, Ms Lynch said: ‘It is a very emotional time for any woman when she is pregnant.

‘For a person with underlying problems, these early fears and anxieties would have been very much intensified.

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