A PATIENT in a psychiatric hospital near York committed suicide before he was due to stand trial for attempted murder, an inquest heard.

Eric Rimmer, 28, hanged himself in his bedroom at Stockton Hall Hospital, in Stockton-on-the-Forest, in March 2005.

Mr Rimmer was transferred to the hospital from a prison in Swansea, because it was thought that he could have benefitted from treatment there. He had been remanded in custody and was due to stand trial.

Mr Rimmer hanged himself by wedging his bed-sheets between the bedroom window and its frame.

Michael Janes, acting clinical nurse manager at the hospital when Mr Rimmer died, told the inquest Stockton Hall did not believe there was a sufficient risk that Mr Rimmer would harm himself for the hospital to lock his bedroom window.

Mr Rimmer, a student from Liverpool, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in the past, had been concerned that he might lose contact with his four-year-old daughter.

Staff nurse at the hospital Samantha Horner, who discovered Mr Rimmer hanging in his room, told the inquest how he had appeared very unhappy the day before he died - but that on the evening of his death, on March 31, he seemed "quite relaxed and in reasonable spirits".

She said she had had no concerns about his well-being that evening.

Because of Mr Rimmer's depressed mood on March 30, staff had begun to observe him regularly.

The following day, on the evening of his death, he was checked at 9.15pm, and then again at 9.38pm - when he was found hanging in his room.

Ms Horner said since Mr Rimmer's death, she had found out he had been concerned about the medication he was taking.

The inquest heard a hand-written note was found in Mr Rimmer's bedroom at the hospital, detailing his thoughts during the days before his death.

The inquest, held at New Earswick Folk Hall, was also told Mr Rimmer had also taken a drugs overdose in 2004.

His long-term goal had been to return to Aberystwyth and be with his daughter, the inquest heard.

The jury decided the hospital had no reason to believe Mr Rimmer was a specific suicide risk.

They said appropriate precautions were taken to prevent him taking his own life - and there were no defects in the system that contributed to the death of Mr Rimmer.

The jury returned a verdict that Mr Rimmer had intended to take his own life.