A TRAIN driver told an inquest of the minute he saw a woman “jump” onto the tracks in front of him.

Andrew Parfitt was driving the freight train which hit Anita Tebbutt who was suffering from depression.

Miss Tebbutt, of Wickens Place, West Malling, was struck by the train at the railway Station near her home in March last year.

At the inquest into her death, the coroner heard how Miss Tebbutt, 57, had undergone brain surgery for a cerebral aneurysm in 2005, after which her mental condition had deteriorated and she suffered from depression.

The inquest heard how Miss Tebbutt had become a recluse and had stopped looking after her appearance. She was no longer able to drive and lost earnings as a result.

Her GP, Dr Maria Gibson, from the West Malling Group Practice, said Miss Tebbutt had become paranoid and was refusing medication although eventually she was persuaded to take anti-depressants.

Dr Gibson told how Miss Tebbutt had said during a later consultation that she had been to West Malling Station three times but told doctors she was “too cowardly to do anything”.

She had also told her daughter, Michelle Millard, that she had been to the station three times. She was referred to Priority House, Maidstone Hospital, in March.

The inquest was shown CCTV footage of Miss Tebbutt’s final movements at the railway station.

Train driver Mr Parfitt said he had seen Miss Tebbutt approach the edge of the platform and crouch before she “jumped”.

Mid Kent and Medway coroner Roger Sykes said: “I have no doubt that in going onto the tracks Anita knew she was facing certain death. It was a means of taking her own life that she had contemplated before.

“Tragically though it is to the family, on this occasion she had the necessary courage.”

Mr Sykes recorded a verdict that Miss Tebbutt had taken her own life while severely depressed.