A "desperate" Greenwich mother facing a custody battle and eviction is believed to have killed herself and her two young children, an inquest has heard.

Dolce-Mai Dada, nine, and Rhys Dada, three, were found dead last January in their home after ingesting a toxic mix of drugs, alongside their mother Sydnie-Blu Macfarlane, 28.

In the days before her death Ms Macfarlane told a friend she had "nothing to live for" and her former partner Sean Dada was seeking full custody of their children. She said she was facing eviction from her home, and had recently fallen pregnant and miscarried.

A letter found in Ms Macfarlane's home entitled "to Mum and family" read: "I guess no one will ever understand why I done what I done."

Southwark Coroner's Court heard that when emergency services were called on January 30 last year to an address in Lenthorp Road, an ambulance crew found an adult female and two children dead on a bed under a duvet, with an assortment of drugs nearby.

Dr Nathaniel Cary, the forensic pathologist who examined the bodies of the children, said it was unlikely they took the drugs themselves accidentally.

More than 30 sheets of paper, laid out individually with handwriting on them, were found in the house, the court heard on Thursday.

There was also writing on the living room walls, including the phrases: "She fears for my children and with a mother like me I agree" and "I'm taking them away from the toxic around them".

Detective Sergeant Dave Brooks told the inquest that the notes indicated a "feeling that she was in a desperate place and she felt she had no other option than to take her own life and [those] of her children".

Ms Macfarlane had also written "We are to be buried together" and "No one is to separate me from my babies".

The court heard that in the weeks leading up to her death Ms Macfarlane had been distressed about a number of issues, including the discovery of an infidelity.

In one Facebook messenger conversation, she said: "I have been sent what I deserved... I am struggling with it all.

"Disgusting things have been said about me... I am tarnished for life."

Detective Inspector Frances Ruocco, who read Ms Macfarlane's texts, WhatsApp and Facebook messages from January 15 to her death, said it seemed the mother felt "hopeless".

Ms Macfarlane's friend Shauneen Langford-Bell said that in the early hours of the Friday before her death, she had spoken to the mother, who sounded "very upset".

"She said she had 28 days to get out of her house, and Sean was filing for full custody, and now she had lost me and she had nothing to live for," Ms Langford-Bell told the court.

Ms Macfarlane's mother Angela Macfarlane told the inquest: "She was a great mum, a great daughter and I never dreamed that anything like this would happen."

Coroner Andrew Harris adjourned the inquest, which will continue on Friday.