A senior BBC executive killed herself after she was left “isolated” and “undersupported” in an impossible job, an inquest heard yesterday.

The body of Kari Boto, 53, of Ipswich, Suffolk, was plucked from the sea at Felixstowe in June last year, three days before her BBC contract had been due to expire. The mother of three had previously had a 30-year career at the BBC, rising to become executive editor of the BBC World Service’s Africa, Middle East and Arabic section.

But her mental health disintegrated after she suffered extreme stress in her role as a director with the BBC World Service Trust. The inquest at Ipswich Crown Court heard that Mrs Boto’s anxieties spiralled after she was refused permission to withdraw her resignation in March 2007. Tom Boto, her husband of 26 years, told the inquest that his wife, who worked under her maiden name of Kari Blackburn, was “crying for help but no one at the BBC would listen. She felt the job was impossible to do. She felt there was a lack of basic infrastructure and a lack of management support”.

Mr Boto, a consultant obstetrician, added: “She felt isolated and undersupported. She became very anxious about her job. She was worried about failure and could not see any way to make it a success. She was crying for help but no one at the BBC would listen.”

Mrs Boto was head-hunted in October 2006 for the job at the trust, a charitable offshoot of the BBC which sets up media projects in the Third World. Mr Boto said that his wife started becoming tearful in January last year. “I asked what the problem was and she said, ‘It is what I am going to find when I go into work’.” Mr Boto said that his wife felt depressed because she was unable to discuss her problems with her managers. Then, in March, she resigned on the spur of the moment in a telephone call to Stephen King, the trust’s director.

Mr Boto said that he then took his wife on a two-week holiday in Nepal and she recovered her self-confidence and wellbeing. But when she returned and tried to withdraw her resignation, Mr King was “aggressive and uncompromising” and told her it was too late.

Mr Boto said: “She was unsupported, unprotected and completely isolated. She came back to the same hostile work processes and management.”

Mr Boto said that his wife sent an e-mail to a former colleague, saying: “I am sure that I somehow could have tackled the considerable endemic problems at the trust, but it was too late to be given a second chance.”

She soon received a letter from her bosses saying that her 30-year career would end on June 30. Kevin Burden, head of training at the trust, told the inquest that he witnessed Mrs Boto being “marginalised and demonised by the management”. His evidence was halted by Peter Dean, the Greater Suffolk Coroner, who said that his comments were “not relevant” to the hearing. But Mr Burden continued: “I believe this is fully supported by the evidence and something I have experience of myself.”

Mr Burden then said that he had taken up his concerns about the treatment given to Mrs Boto with senior management. “The director of the World Service said to me she was a failure and there was no place for failures at the BBC,” he said.

Rachel Curry, human resources director of the BBC journalism group, said that her colleagues had failed to spot Mrs Boto’s distress.

Ms Curry said it was “regrettable” that the e-mail sent by Mr King to request that she get occupational therapy was not properly addressed and therefore not acted upon. The hearing heard that Mrs Boto was last seen sitting on steps at Felixstowe promenade, looking upset and with her head in her hands. Witnesses said that the alarm was raised after a pile of folded clothes was found along with keys to Mrs Boto’s Volkswagen Golf.

Police found notes in Mrs Boto’s car that she had written to relatives. These were not read out.

Dr Dean said that it was clear from the evidence that Mrs Boto had been more deeply depressed than her BBC bosses realised. After the hearing, Mr Boto said his family would be discussing possible taking legal action against the BBC. “Procedurally the BBC may have argued it was not at fault, but they had a duty of care for her as an organisation,” he said. “She ended up sacrificing herself. The BBC may wash their hands of it just because they followed the correct procedure. But that is not justice.”

The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.

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