AN inquest has heard how a young woman died in Weston-under-Penyard.

Charmaine Stevens, 22, from Nursery Road in Ross-on-Wye met Mark Thomas at a party and went to stay with him in Weston-under-Penyard three days before she died on April 20.

Mr Thomas told Herefordshire Coroner's Court that they took illegal drugs together and during the evening before she was found dead they smoked heroin and she went to bed at 11pm.

He said when he came to bed at 4am she was breathing heavily but when he woke up in the morning she had died.

Mr Thomas called a friend and they tried to resuscitate her before an ambulance was called.

He said he found an empty bottle of morphine on the floor which he believed she could have taken.

A post mortem revealed Miss Stevens died of respiratory depression as a result of opiate toxicity.

A toxicity report revealed she had a number of drugs in her system and that the morphine level was significant.

Barnaby Major, from the 2gether NHS Foundation Trust, said Miss Stevens had a long history of recreational drug use and during the last three and a half years she had experienced three psychotic episodes.

He said she had no motivation to stop recreational drug use.

Her dad, David, said Charmaine was always a very happy child but when she was around 15 she started to smoke cannabis which made her distant from her parents.

At 18 she suffered a mental breakdown which he said was caused by the drugs she was taking.

Coroner Mark Bricknell recorded a verdict of drug related death.