A VULNERABLE young woman killed by drugs was found dead in a Hampshire flat after spending three days unconscious on a friend’s sofa, an inquest heard.

Abigail Calland, 26, died in October after an all-night “party” saw her take a fatal cocktail of substances, a hearing was told on Wednesday.

She fell into a coma at a flat in Lawn Street, Winchester, and may have been dead for up to two days before her host checked on her, Winchester Coroner’s Court heard.

The inquest was told Ms Calland suffered from mental health problems, including borderline personality disorder, and was seeking help from local services.

Friend Claire Walsh told how on Friday, October 2, she and Ms Calland drank for two hours in Winchester’s Abbey Gardens in memory of a friend who had died a year earlier.

The pair returned to Ms Walsh’s house in Pemberton Road, Weeke, where Ms Calland was staying prior to the incident, the inquest heard.

Ms Calland left on the morning on Saturday, October 3 because she wanted to “keep partying”, Ms Walsh said in a statement.

A post-mortem and text messages referenced in court revealed Ms Calland had taken methadone, prescribed medication, legal high 4-MEC and mephedrone, a formerly legal substance also known as M-Cat.

Detective Sergeant Sara Donovan said Ms Calland stayed on the sofa of friend Bill Taylor in Lawn Street to “sleep off the effects” of the mephedrone.

Mr Taylor, described as vulnerable and unable to give evidence in court, was said to have seen Ms Calland breathing on the Saturday evening.

DS Donovan said Mr Taylor didn’t check her the following day, telling how he eventually found her dead on the evening of Monday, October 5.

“He went out as usual, came back and realised that she’d been asleep for about three days and perhaps he ought to try and wake her,” DS Donovan said. “It was at that point he realised she wasn’t breathing and immediately called the ambulance.”

The post-mortem found that Ms Calland was killed by a combination of methadone and prescribed drugs.

Ms Walsh said Ms Calland’s behaviour that weekend was not out of character, adding that she would sometimes “disappear for a few days”.

Explaining Ms Calland’s emotional disorder, Dr Katherine Williams, consultant psychiatrist at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “People can be more likely to be impulsive in their behaviour with this personality disorder and not necessarily think through the consequences of actions.”

Senior central Hampshire coroner Grahame Short ruled out suicide, recording a verdict of drug-related death.