A MOTHER has spoken of her disappointment as she faces a three-month wait for the results of an inquest into her son’s death.

Former Radley College pupil Luke Bitmead, from Oxford, jumped from a multi-storey car park in October 2006 after discharging himself from hospital.

His mother Elaine Hanson and her husband Chris have campaigned for changes to be made to the rules that allowed her son to discharge himself.

Mrs Hanson said: “We are hoping that the practices that failed our son will be improved so that no one else will have to go through the pain of standing next to their son, begging him to be alive, after making the decision to turn off his life support machine.”

Last week an inquest in Trowbridge was held into Mr Bitmead’s death.

Coroner David Ridley heard that staff at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon had helped him remove his drip before allowing him to leave the hospital.

The inquest has been adjourned until October to allow the coroner time to deliver his final verdict.

Mrs Hanson, from Southrop, Gloucestershire, said: “It has been three years and nine months since Luke’s death and a lot of people won’t be able to remember the events clearly now.

“It must be hard for them to remember, which is just tragic. It makes it harder to get at the truth.”

Mrs Hanson described her son as a warm and loving person.

She said: “Luke was kind, charismatic and conscientious.”

Mr Bitmead suffered an on-going battle with depression and tried to kill himself in 1998. Over the next few years, he started to write seriously and in May 2006, published a novel, White Summer.

In early 2006, Mr Bitmead moved to Summertown, Oxford, working in a Blockbuster store.But another bout of depression led to him taking a drug overdose in October 2006.

After being admitted to the Great Western Hospital he was allowed to discharge himself.

Staff assisted him in removing his drip and monitoring equipment. He then got a taxi to a multi-storey car park where he jumped to his death.

Mrs Hanson said she was not interested in blaming anyone for her son’s suicide, adding: “It doesn’t achieve anything.

“But I also don’t believe in people covering up their mistakes. I just want to get to the bottom of what happened and to find out why he was allowed to leave.”

During the inquest, Celia Moore, a nurse who assessed Mr Bitmead, said she felt suicide was his “back-up plan” and he would rather be treated for his mental health issues. She told the inquest it was not her job to detain patients, rather to assess the circumstances surrounding his admission.

Mr Bitmead’s stepfather Chris Hanson said Luke should have been detained by hospital staff under the Mental Health Act.

He added: “There was a real opportunity for this story to have a very different result.”