Lisa Derriscott "couldn't live with herself" after being told that convicted paedophile Shaun Tudor had committed the attack whilst on temporary, unsupervised release from his secure unit.

The 33-year-old doctor was a member of a large team that had approved Tudor's two hour release.

When told of the assault, Dr Derriscott "obsessed" over it and became "quiet, distressed and withdrawn", the inquest heard.

Although the decision to release Tudor was not hers alone, she had quickly blamed herself and spent hours analysing her notes on the case to determine whether or not more could have been done.

Andrew Whittle, Dr Derriscott's partner, said she had blamed herself for what happened "repeatedly" and had also talked of "not being able to live with herself" and "wanting to go to sleep and not wake up".

Her body was found on August 3 last year, two weeks after the attack.

The following day, Tudor, 43, pleaded guilty to attempted rape and sexual assault at Nottingham Crown Court.

He was jailed indefinitely and the judge said that it was probable he would never be regarded as safe enough to be freed.

Tudor, who has learning difficulties and Asperger's syndrome, was made the subject of a hospital order in 1988 when he was convicted at Birmingham Crown Court of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy.

He was held at the high security Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire before being moved to a secure unit in Birmingham. He returned to Rampton in 1998.

From 2004, he had spells at two other secure units before being transferred to the centre in Mansfield run by St Andrew's Healthcare, where Dr Derriscott worked.

Tudor targeted his young victim just minutes after being released from the unit on July 20 last year.

He lured the boy, who was playing in a park close to his home, into woods where he molested him before threatening to kill him if he told anyone what had happened.

Tudor then went on the run and was arrested eight hours later around five miles from the unit.

Dr Derriscott's mother, Betty, told the hearing that her daughter was normally a "lively, cheerful" person who loved her work and "put 150 per cent into everything she did".

"She had always been such a logical person that saw through problems, other people's problems, but she obviously could not see through her own," she said.

The inquest heard there was "no evidence of third party involvement" in her death and that a half-empty petrol can was discovered in her vehicle, along with a cigarette lighter.

A number of notes, including ones written to her mother and partner, were also found.

Derby coroner Dr Robert Hunter said: "Rightly or wrongly, Lisa Derriscott blamed herself for the incident. Her perception was the blame was with her."

Recording a verdict of suicide, he added: "We know she has reacted to an incident at work, maybe overreacted some would say, but it induced a severe set of anxiety attacks.

"I have no doubt that when she was in the throes of those attacks it affected her and clouded her judgment.

"It may have been that she was so dedicated to her work that she took it personally, this was a personal failure. That was her perception."

Dr Derriscott's family declined to comment after the inquest.