A Schoolgirl Hanged Herself From A Tree After Her Parents' Marriage Split Became Too Much For Her To Cope With.

The word 'sorry' was etched into the tree trunk.

Alison Friend, 14, spiralled into depression after her father Peter admitted to an affair and left the family home. She had threatened to kill herself and disappeared one evening in April after arguing with her mother over suicide notes which had been found in her school locker.

A police hunt was launched and her body, still dressed in her school uniform, was found in woodland half a mile away. At an inquest yesterday, her mother Judith broke down in tears as she told how her daughter, who had been a happy, well-adjusted child, slowly slid into despair. In a statement read to the hearing, Mrs Friend, a primary school classroom assistant, said: 'When her dad left it was like a bomb going off in the house.

'It was just so much for her to cope with. It would be hard for an adult, let alone a child. She just desperately wanted things to be how they used to be before.

'Alison took it very much to heart. She took a lot of time to come to terms with it.'

Alison was a talented pupil at Castle School in Taunton, Somerset, one of the country's leading comprehensives, and received glowing reports. But her life fell apart when her 49-year-old father, a senior manager for Mencap, the charity for people with learning disabilities, confessed to an affair in May last year. He packed his bags the next day and left the family home in Ham, near Wellington, Somerset, to be with his lover in Sheffield.

A school friend, whose name was withheld from the Taunton inquest, revealed: 'She started to rebel. She grew her hair long, stopped giving in her homework on time and started to smoke.

'She also started to cut her wrists but got upset with people when they spoke to her about it.'

The friend said she overheard Alison discuss suicide. She said: 'It was after the Easter holiday that I heard Alison asking friends what people would think if a person or she died.'

Alison ran away from home a month later. But before she had a chance to carry out her suicide threat, her best friend found six letters saying goodbye to family and friends in her school locker. Alison had handed her friend the keys to the locker 'just in case' she didn't come in the next day. The girl told how Alison had talked about jumping off a railway bridge and asked her how she would feel about a friend who killed herself.

She said: 'I told her I would tell them they shouldn't do it. I was very worried and I spoke to another friend about it.

'I told her Alison was talking about killing herself but she said she wouldn't do it because she hadn't got the bottle. But I wasn't so sure so I went to her locker and opened it.'

The girl discovered the letters and alerted school staff, who telephoned Mrs Friend and gave her the notes. It was after her mother confronted her about her plans that Alison rushed out of the family home for the last time. Mrs Friend, who broke down several times during the inquest, told how she had thought her daughter was in a happy mood earlier that day when she picked her up from school.

'It never occurred to me she would kill herself and I decided to speak to her when we got into the car,' she said.

'As we drove out of the school she was shouting at me, asking me where I had been and who I had been talking to.

'She threatened to throw herself out of the moving vehicle.'

When they reached home, Mrs Friend thought her daughter had followed her into the house but realised shortly afterwards that she had not come in. She and Alison's sister Hannah, 17, searched for her but later reported her missing to police.

After a massive hunt, her body was found a day and a half later. She was still wearing her white school shirt, black skirt, tights and shoes. Mrs Friend told the inquest that her daughter had refused counselling despite the devastating effect of the marriage split.

She said Alison was jealous of her father's girlfriend's children and had a difficult stay with them during-a visit to Scotland at New Year. 'She wanted her father to say sorry,' she said.

'When she spoke to him on the phone she said it was like talking to an uncle. She found it difficult to come to terms with her loss and wondered why he didn't want to be in her life.'

Recording a verdict of suicide, coroner Michael Rose said: 'This has been a most harrowing inquest, the most harrowing in my 35 years as a coroner.

'

This family will never forget what has happened but I hope that in time they will be able to look back and remember the good things in Alison's life.'

He said it was clear that the family had been happy until Mr Friend left.

'Few people realise the effect that the break-up of a family has on children unless they have been through it,' he said. 'Fortunately, most of us do not have to do so.'