Author inquest adjourned (From The Oxford Times)

Author inquest adjourned

11:10am Saturday 31st July 2010 in

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A CORONER yesterday retired to consider his verdict into the death of an author who discharged himself from hospital before leaping to his death from a car park.

Staff at Great Western Hospital in Swindon helped Luke Bitmead, 34, who was living in Oxford at the time of his death, remove his drip and monitoring equipment before allowing him to leave – dressed only in his pyjamas – in the early hours of October 27, 2006.

An inquest heard Mr Bitmead’s family were concerned staff did not detain him under the Mental Health Act, despite knowing his history of clinical depression.

Coroner David Ridley finished hearing evidence yesterday and adjourned the five-day inquest until October.