A coroner suggested a Romsey widow was failing to tell the whole story about the night her husband died.

Sandra Hollins, whose husband, Patrick, fell downstairs at their home, told a Winchester inquest she did not recall rowing with him before the accident.

But neighbour, Angela Simpson, said she had twice come close to phoning the police about the couple shouting.

Mrs Hollins told Mid-Hampshire coroner, Grahame Short, that she was asleep when she heard a loud thump. She found her husband lying at the bottom of the stairs, but did not realise he had suffered fatal head injuries.

She placed a quilt over him and had expected him to recover and go to bed as normal after the accident on July 19th.

However, the 62-year-old suffered such severe brain injuries that he was dead by the time she returned to him in the morning.

The inquest heard that Mr Hollins had been drinking at the Royal British Legion Club, where his wife worked.

He had decided to stay up and drink lager in front of the television after the couple returned from the club.

Mrs Hollins said she had spoken to her husband and tried to move him, but he had told her to leave him there.

However, pathologist Prof Dennis Wright doubted whether Mr Hollins would have been able to speak.

He said: "It was a massive injury which involved sheering of brain tissue. I would be very surprised if he had been conscious, but I would need that confirmed by a neurosurgeon."

Prof Wright said that death came as a result of falling backwards, which caused a fracture of the skull and bleeding around the brain.

A second pathologist found that Mr Hollins had a cut on his bottom lip which could could be a sign of a previous impact or biting on it during the fall.

WPC Yvonne Strachan, of Romsey Police, said Mrs Hollins was shocked and upset, and was blaming herself for leaving her husband unattended.

The policewoman said: "Mrs Hollins told me, 'I've killed him, I feel so guilty. I just left him lying there'."

Mrs Hollins, also in her 60s, was later charged with manslaughter and questioned by Romsey police.

However she was released after long interviews because police found no evidence that she had caused her husband's death.

Mr Short heard that Patrick Hollins suffered mobility problems from arthritis, as well as diabetes.

He was a heavy drinker and would occasionally fall while drunk. He had once even cycled into a canal near his home.

On the night, he had a blood alcohol level equivalent to three times the drink-drive limit.

Mr Short recorded a verdict of accidental death.

"Alcohol would have impaired his judgement and made him more prone to falls.

"I believe an argument probably did take place, and I don't think Mrs Hollins is telling us everything that happened that night," he commented.

"There is also some inconsistency between what Mrs Hollins said and what the pathologist said about whether he was conscious after falling, and the fact that no attempt was made to get help.

"I find that somewhat strange, but that may have been what ordinarily happened.

"On the evidence and balance of probabilities, I conclude that it was an accident."