A MAN who jumped 40ft to his death from a Blackburn multi-storey car park had a history of schizoph-renia, an inquest heard.

Ian Moulden, 50, was a patient on Darwen Ward of the Royal Blackburn Hospital when he threw himself from the multi-storey car park at The Mall, in Blackburn town centre, on to Lord Square on May 16.

He was taken to the hospital's intensive care unit but, after tests revealed that he was brain dead, his life support and ventilation machines were switched off the following day.

His sister, Carol Jones, claimed that the jump had come "out of the blue", despite him becoming more and more anxious about living arrangements She said that he had attempted the same act on December 26, 2006, which he said was impulsive, and felt very sorry about.

Dr Paul Francis Reed, a consultant psychiatrist at Blackburn Royal Hospital, who had been looking after Mr Moulden since 2001, said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in his mid- 20s and was medicated intravenously, allowing him to live a relatively normal life and work as a textile producer. He had previously been sectioned on a number of occasions, but his general condition had improved and he had been made a voluntary patient on Darwen Ward, Pendle View, said Dr Reed.

On gaining voluntary resident status, he was given the option of moving into a flat, or staying at the hospital.

Neither option appealed to him and he fell into depression.

Mrs Jones added: "Ian fitted carpet and carried out DIY work on the flat he intended to move into, but this was ruined when a ceiling fell in.

"He was also distressed at the loud music coming from neighbouring prop-erties and the general state of disrepair in the flat.

"The family think that in Ian's own mind, he felt he had no other option but suicide."

Recording a suicide verdict, Coroner Michael Singleton said: "I am satisfied that this was not an accident and the only conclusion I can reach is that Ian Moulden intended by his own actions to cause his own death."