A FATHER discovered the body of his 23-year-old daughter after she swallowed poisonous berries.

Mary Talbot, from Elmley Lovett, near Droitwich,

took her own life after eating yew berries.

At an inquest in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire coroner Victor Round told how Martin Talbot found his daughter's body on Saturday, September 24.

Mr Round said: "The whole thing was a total shock for the family and a complete surprise."

He added that the family thought that she was happy with her job, as a credit control office worker in Droitwich, but noticed that she had not been her usual happy self.

"They suspected that she might be depressed and tried to speak to her about it, but she didn't want to," he said.

The evening before her death she had been at a Young Farmers' disco with her 21-year-old brother, David and went to bed at about 2am.

That morning, when Mr Talbot noticed that the breakfast things were still on the table, which was unusual, he went to check on his daughter and found her body.

It was not until he was looking through her belongings, the following month Mr Talbot discovered yew tree twigs in her room and informed the police.

Yew tree berries are highly toxic, causing anyone who eats them to tremble, have breathing difficulties and suffer heart failure.