A FORMER mental health nurse booked into a Southampton hotel to end her life, an inquest heard.

It is believed that Paula Blackwood lay dead in her hotel bed at the Ibis Hotel for 24 hours after a cleaner just assumed that she was asleep.

It was not until the second morning, when the cleaner noticed the 48-year-old was still in the same position that she tried to wake her and discovered that she was dead.

Southampton Coroner’s Court heard how Miss Blackwood had recently returned from travelling in India, where she had gone after giving up her job as a mental health nurse in Essex.

She had booked into the hotel on a Saturday evening and when the cleaner went into her room on Sunday morning, she believed Miss Blackwood was asleep so continued to clean quietly around her.

It was the next morning, February 25, that the cleaner feared something was wrong and raised the alarm.

Coroner Keith Wiseman said that he was in no doubt that she intended to take her own life and read from the note found by police in her room, which said: “I do not have any family or next of kin to report my suicide”.

When police arrived at the scene they found various medications in the room and the post-mortem examination confirmed that she had died from a drugs overdose.

Mr Wiseman recorded a verdict that Miss Blackwood intended to take her own life.