A WOMAN died from an overdose after banging her head and taking tablets for the pain.

At an inquest in High Wycombe on Tuesday Andrew Cookson said his partner Kate Maguire, 39, of Barley Close, Hazlemere, died from taking just a couple pills of Coproxamal, a pain reliever.

Mr Cookson, from Buckingham, who had been Miss Maguire's partner for more than eight years, said he believed Miss Maguire had hit her head, causing it to bleed.

He said she probably tried to staunch the bleeding and took pills, which had been prescribed previously when Miss Maguire had pneumonia, before lying down in the bedroom.

When she went to the kitchen, she fell unconscious and died.

Nicholas Hunt, a Home Office pathologist, told the inquest that Coproxamal, which is only available on prescription, was present in a liver sample at a level high enough to be fatal.

He said: "This is a particularly dangerous drug."

Dr Hunt added that there was an overlap between the therapeutic side of the drug and what was dangerous.

He also said it was difficult to establish the cause of death which had not been apparent at first and because Miss Maguire's body had lain undiscovered for a number of days.

Mr Cookson told the inquest he was probably the last person to speak to Miss Maguire on March 30.

He thought she had gone to visit her family in Ireland. When they phoned to ask if he had been in contact with Miss Maguire, he became concerned and went to her house on April 16.

He said: "I asked a neighbour to come round with me. She stayed on the doorstep and I went into the kitchen and found her."

Mr Cookson phoned the police who at first treated the death suspiciously. There was blood on a number of items in the house and the forensic team was called but foul play was later ruled out.

Coroner Richard Hulett asked Mr Cookson whether Miss Maguire would be the kind of person to deliberately take an overdose but Mr Cookson replied vehemently that Miss Maguire would not do that.

He said Miss Maguire, a project manager, had been annoyed at work but was more likely to get angry than depressed.

Mr Hulett said it was likely that if Miss Maguire was going to take her own life, she would have taken the whole bottle and not just a couple which had been the case.

He recorded a verdict of accidental death.