A MENTAL health patient died after falling from a barrier at the John Radcliffe hospital, an inquest heard.

Oxfordshire Coroners Court heard how David Brooks, aged 58, of Chapel Street, Broadwell, near Stow, a widower was taken from the Warneford Mental Health Hospital in Headington to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on January 14.

The next day he ran out of his ward, climbed over the five-foot barrier of a stairway and fell to the ground below.

Although staff gave him CPR it was thought he had died immediately.

The inquest on January 22 was adjourned, and coroner Darren Salter will now assemble witness statements and a pathologist’s report to try and work out exactly how Mr Brooks died.