A WOMAN who fell 90 feet to her death from a multistorey car park told police losing a custody battle over her daughter had “taken away the only thing she needed in her life.”

Blackburn Coroners Court heard that Sharon McKenzie, 32, of Ravenswood, Preston, had made a series of threats to kill herself if the case brought by Lancashire County Council did not go her way.

After the hearing finished on Thursday, December 1 at Blackburn Coroner’s Court, Miss McKenzie refused a lift home, and made her way to level 7B of The Mall carpark.

After nearly two hours of sitting with her legs dangling over a wall and slumped to her right-handside, sobbing into a bottle of either vodka or gin, police officers sent to negotiate with her described how she “rolled” over the edge.

PC John Moore - who along with colleague PC Neomi Haworth-Oates had no formal negotiation experience, and could not reason with Miss McKenzie - described how at 2.21pm, he heard “a loud scream from where she had been sitting that lasted for about two or three seconds, then I heard a loud thud.”

Miss McKenzie landed face down between two cars in Victoria Street.

Toxicology results showed that alcohol in her blood was four times the legal driving limit.

Solicitor Catherine Dodds, who represented Miss McKenzie during the custody case, said a mental health report had revealed she had a “borderline personality disorder with co-morbid accents, and also depression and anxiety.”

She said that Miss McKenzie had taken an overdose of tablets after an earlier custody hearing in October 2011, and that her repeated suicide threats left her with a feeling, that following the final hearing, “the outcome was inevitable”.

PC Jessica Wild, a police telephony officer, read out a series of desperate text messages sent by Miss Mckenzie in the hours before her death.

They included: “I don’t want anybody to contact me after today, I want nobody or nothing after that. I’ll be gone for good after that”, and, in reply to a police text message asking her to contact them, she wrote: “No I’m not okay. They took away the one think I need in my life and I’m waiting on top of a carpark for it all to be over”.

Coroner Michael Singleton concluded that the death was caused by multiple injuries.

He said: “Given the history I’ve heard in regards to various text messages sent, and her position on the carpark, I am satisfied that Sharon Mckenzie intended to kill herself.”

He added: “This is a very tragic case not only in terms of the death, but because of the events that led up to it.”

A spokesperson for Lancashire County Council said: "This is a very tragic case and our sympathy goes to all family members.

"It would be inappropriate to comment on an individual case but, while we help people as much as we can to overcome difficulties in their lives, sadly in some cases those difficulties prove overwhelming."