Charlotte Bevan: Tragedy of cliff fall mother and baby

Charlotte Bevan, her partner Pascal Malbrouk and Zaani Tiana who was four days old

On a freezing night last December, Charlotte Bevan and her newborn baby daughter went missing from a hospital in Bristol.

Still wearing her slippers, the 30-year-old first-time mother walked from St Michael's Hospital in the centre of the city to the Avon Gorge, where she threw herself off the cliff-face with baby Zaani in her arms.

At the inquest into her death it was revealed that Ms Bevan had a long history of mental health problems and had suffered an "undiagnosed psychotic relapse" before the tragedy.

Her father died from a brain tumour when she was 15 years old and in the years that followed, she self-harmed, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was sectioned four times under the Mental Health Act.

In 2010, suffering from depression and experiencing paranoid psychotic episodes, Ms Bevan was prescribed risperidone.

The inquest heard she stopped taking the anti-psychotic drug to breastfeed her new baby.

'Extremely concerned'

Midwife Alison Woozley told the hearing she had a "sense of foreboding" before Zaani's birth, when she expressed concern that Ms Bevan had stopped taking her medication prematurely.

"She became very, very angry. She was right in my face, saying 'I know my rights as a woman, how dare you tell me what to do'.

"I was extremely concerned for Charlotte's well-being but also for the well-being of the baby. My anxiety was how she could look after a baby," she said.

Psychiatrist Laurence Mynors-Wallis said there were "significant failings" in Ms Bevan's care.

"There wasn't a watertight care plan in place," he told the inquest.

Personality change

"A care plan is core to delivering the interventions that are needed for people with mental illnesses, especially those who are going through childbirth - which is a stressful experience.

"It is important as well because she would be coming into contact with a series of professionals who aren't experts in mental health."

Dr Mynors-Wallis questioned whether St Michaels Hospital was the right place for Charlotte to give birth.

Nurses there were not trained to deal with "complex" patients and may have "normalised her behaviour as that of being an exhausted mother", he said.

There is a specialist centre for patients with mental health issues at Southmead Hospital, in the north of Bristol.

More questions about Ms Bevan's care are likely be answered in a Serious Case Review which is under way and expected to report its findings once complete.

In an interview with the BBC, Ms Bevan's friend Aniel Paranjpe said her "outgoing" personality could change "suddenly, unpredictably".

Mr Paranjpe said she her mood could change suddenly "because of - as she would describe it - very dark things going on in the world"

Mr Paranjpe first met Ms Bevan about a decade ago in Glastonbury, when he was working in a health food shop where she was a customer.

When he moved to Brighton in 2008 Ms Bevan - who was studying massage and natural therapies - slept on his sofa for three months, he said.

'Very dark things'

"She wore her heart on her sleeve and she was fairly outgoing.

"But I think there was something holding her back from being the expressionist, the confident person that she could have been.

"I think on most days, if you turn the clock back to when she was here, she was fine.

"But there were trigger moments that would set her off into a depression."

The same year, as her family became increasingly concerned about her "chaotic lifestyle", Ms Bevan was sectioned for the first time.

'Get on with life'

Mr Paranjpe continued to receive news about her through Facebook and in April 2014 she told him she was pregnant and that she would visit him in Brighton with her partner Pascal Malbrouck and the baby.

"She told me a lot about her dreams and all the fun she was going to have... and it sounded great," he said.

"It sounded like she had a head for all of that and really wanted to get on with life in another way, as a family."

CCTV captured Charlotte Bevan leaving St Michael's Hospital

On 28 November, two weeks overdue, Zaani Tiana Bevan Malbrouck was born.

The inquest heard Ms Bevan was "happy on the day of the birth" but her partner Pascal said she became "worse and worse and worse" as she was not sleeping or eating.

Her sister Janet Tibbs, following a visit on 30 November, said she had been "worried for Zaani" as her sister had appeared "sketchy and on edge".

'Too late'

Two days later, with temperatures close to freezing, the new mother walked out of the hospital carrying her four-day-old daughter, wrapped in just a blanket.

Their bodies were later discovered in the Avon Gorge by a passerby who spotted the white hospital slippers and a multicoloured-blanket.

"I just thought I will hear from her when the baby has been delivered," said Mr Paranjpe.

"Then I heard the news and realised that it was too late."