A young mother tragically fell to her death in front of friends when she tried to climb into her flat after forgetting her keys on a night out, an inquest heard today.
Simone Jarvis, 27, suffered fatal head injuries after tumbling around 20ft from an upper windowsill which gave way as she attempted to climb on to it.
A coroner heard how she had returned after a night out with her boyfriend and some friends when the accident happened in the early hours of January 14.
She realised she was locked out of her Georgian-period flat in Redland, Bristol and told her friends she had climbed in before.
One of her pals gave her a leg-up to reach an upper window but the brickwork gave way under her grasp and she fell to the ground and was knocked unconscious.
Another friend, Josh Hannam, told the inquest in a statement that he warned the mum-of-one she ‘shouldn’t be climbing’ the building.
He said: “A neighbour let us in to the building, but then Simone went back outside.
“I followed her out and saw someone helping Simone climb up the right-hand corner of the building.
“I shouted to her that she shouldn’t be climbing – then I heard one of our friends shouting ‘Simone’ and turned to see the brickwork falling away.
“Her partner [Oliver Steadman] then called for an ambulance.”
PC Annette Coleman told Avon Coroners Court she arrived at the scene shortly after 4am, by which time an ambulance was there.
She described “a number of people on the street” outside the old Georgian-style building and a large pool of blood in front of the stairs leading up to the main door of the building.
She said: “About 20-25 feet from ground level I could see a part of the windowsill was missing and appeared to have broken off.
“A female was on a stretcher being carried into the ambulance – she had fallen and was not breathing.
“Her boyfriend, Oliver Steadman, and her brother, Kallam Lester, identified themselves to me. Both were very upset and wanted to come to the hospital.
“Kallam kept saying “She fell”, and was not making much sense.”
The inquest heard that paramedics managed to re-start Miss Jarvis’s heart after she arrived at Bristol’s Southmead Hospital.
But she had suffered a devastating brain injury and no neurological intervention was possible.
Assistant Coroner Dr Peter Harrowing recorded Simone’s death as an accident, caused by traumatic brain injury.
He said: “This was a tragic accident suffered while trying to gain entry to her flat, after she had been out enjoying herself with her boyfriend and other friends.”
