A GRAVESEND mum was trampled to death by a horse soon after discharging herself from hospital, an inquest has heard.

Teresa Mary Turner, 53, of St Georges Crescent, was battling alcohol addiction when she was admitted to Darent Valley Hospital in April last year.

But at around 4.30am on April 13, she became agitated and discharged herself against medical advice.

She was later found dead less than a 10-minute walk away in a horse paddock near Darenth Wood Road in Dartford.

The inquest heard Mrs Turner had been driven to drink after the death of her five-month-old son 13 years ago.

She was a recovering alcoholic, who had not had a drink since December 2011 - but had been taken to hospital on 10 occasions suffering alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Husband Paul Turner drove her to hospital after she suffered two fits at around 11.30pm on April 12 last year.

He later left to take their 11-year-old son home but Mrs Turner phoned him in the early hours claiming to be on a roof where a horse was trying to bite her.

The inquest heard she left the hospital by telling nurses her husband was picking her up and filled out a self-discharge form at around 4.30am without a doctor present.

Edward George Murphy, who owns the horse in question, told the inquest he had seen Mrs Turner come down from the roof of a chalet in the Knoxfield caravan site in The Paddocks, Kingsdown, and walk into the nearby woods.

Witness Lavinia Harber, who saw Mrs Turner on the roof, said: "She was confused and not with it.

"She was saying in a very raised voice ‘I know you are all in there talking about me - I’m not coming to visit you no more’."

The cause of death was given as compressive chest injuries.

Pathologist Benjamin Swift, who conducted the post-mortem examination, said: "Mrs Turner suffered blunt impact injuries which likely have been caused by stamping.

"Given the injuries and the curved appearance, it raises the strong possibility that these have been inflicted by a horse."

The coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure at the inquest on November 22.

He said: "I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Mrs Turner entered the paddock area where she was trampled on by the horse."