Inquest told of author's death jump (From The Oxford Times)

Inquest told of author's death jump

7:00pm Monday 26th July 2010 in News

AN author who took an overdose was able to discharge himself from hospital – only to leap to his death hours later from a multi-storey car park, an inquest heard.

Staff at Great Western Hospital, Swindon, helped Luke Bitmead remove his drip and monitoring equipment before allowing him to leave – dressed only in his pyjamas, on October 27, 2006. He then leapt 30 feet from a car park in Swindon.

An inquest into his death heard the family of the 34-year-old, who lived in Summertown, Oxford, were concerned staff did not detain him under the Mental Health Act, despite knowing his history of clinical depression.

Mr Bitmead’s mother Elaine Hanson, from Gloucestershire, told the inquest in Trowbridge she went with her son to the hospital on October 26, after he called and told her he had taken a potentially lethal dose of painkillers.

The writer, author of two published novels White Summer and Heading South, was “talented” but did not believe in himself.

The inquest continues and is listed for five days.