A HAY-ON-WYE teenager who died a month after her 18th birthday had become paranoid and delusional before her death, an inquest heard.

Carmel Kelly at times thought police were after her and had been suffering from panic attacks before she was found hanging at home in March last year.

As part of prescribed therapy to try to boost her confidence, Ms Kelly and her dad Chris often walked separate routes around the town before meeting up. On this occasion, she asked if they could take a longer route.

But she failed to meet him near the Three Tuns and he ran back to the house to find her in the stairway. She was taken to hospital in Abergavenny but died the next day which, doctors confirmed, resulted from a brain injury caused by pressure on the neck.

Powys coroner Peter Maddox said notes and diary entries found after Ms Kelly’s death did not suggest she intended to take her own life and were instead written by somebody who was “mixed up and asking for help”.

He recorded a verdict of misadventure.