A former midwife threw herself off an aqueduct after travelling by taxi to North Wales from her home in Swansea.

An inquest in Ruthin heard that 64-year-old Cheryl Schaverein had made the same journey the previous week, also by taxi.

John Gittins, coroner for North Wales East and Central, read a statement by taxi driver Jamie Sargent of the Swansea firm Data Cabs in which he described how
Mrs Schaverein had paid for the trip to Froncysyllte on July 3 in advance, and after arriving at the
world-famous beauty spot they had a short ride on the canal.

She then walked across the aqueduct alongside the canal and asked Mr Sargent to carry her bag. He walked a short distance away and a few minutes later when a crowd gathered he realised what had happened.

Mrs Schaverein, of Dulais Grove, Sketty, was found lying beneath the aqueduct, having fallen about 30 metres, and although police officers applied CPR, paramedics certified her as dead at the scene. She had suffered multiple crush injuries.

Mr Sargent told police that she had told him she had few friends and discussed her marriage and religious beliefs with him, but she gave no hint that she intended to harm herself.

However the coroner also read a statement from her brother Anthony Goodwin in which he said she suffered from ME and various other conditions. Their father and another sister had committed suicide and Mrs Schaverein was going through divorce proceedings.

In October last year she took an overdose and she had become increasingly reclusive, refusing to allow anyone to see her.

Recording a conclusion of suicide, Mr Gittins said that in view of her health problems and previous incidents of self-harm it was clear that she intended to kill herself.

“But whether it was planned or a decision made at the time it is impossible to know,” he added.