A mentally ill man on day release from Tolworth Hospital had attempted suicide just weeks before he jumped to his death from the Bentall Centre car park, an has inquest heard.

Joseph Healy, 42, committed suicide on March 5 this year, after being admitted to the psychiatric hospital three weeks before, Fulham Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.

Witnesses saw him standing on the parapet of the 12th floor for at least half-an-hour and then make a “determined leap” on to Steadfast Road below.

He suffered multiple injuries to his spine, head and chest and was pronounced dead at Kingston Hospital at 12.30pm.

South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust, which runs Tolworth Hospital, is now carrying out its own inquiry into why Mr Healy was allowed out when he had made another suicide attempt just weeks before.

Mr Healy was forced to give up his job as a forestry manager in 1998 when he developed depression and an anxiety disorder brought on by overwork.

He was temporarily hospitalised and then lived independently in Surbiton for seven years on a prescription of diazepam and other medications.

His mother told the court that no longer having a job or a girlfriend meant he had “little light at the end of a very painful tunnel”.

He was due to move to a new flat in Avenue South, Surbiton, on February 16 this year, but was admitted Tolworth Hospital’s lilac ward the day before because he was experiencing “severe anxiety” over the upheaval.

A week later, while on day release, he lay on the train tracks near Surbiton station, the inquest heard.

But he abandoned his suicide bid when he became scared of the train and got a taxi back home.

On two other occasions over the next week he ran away from his mother while she supervised him on day release.

Despite duty doctors at the hospital being told about all three incidents, Dr Jumi Banjo admitted she had not been given all the information when she decided to send him on overnight leave on March 4, the day before his death, the inquest heard.

Coroner Elizabeth Pygott recorded a verdict that Mr Healy killed himself while suffering from a mental illness.

• Samaritans provides confidential non-judgemental emotional support, 24 hours a day for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which could lead to suicide