A PSYCHIATRIC patient killed himself beneath the wheels of a high speed train on the eve of his 30th birthday.

A coroner's inquest at Chester-le-Street yesterday heard that Gareth Ryan Walburn was hit by a train travelling at about 90mph as it approached Darlington station in October last year.

The unemployed 29-year-old had been a patient at the psychiatric unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital but, at the time of his death, was undergoing treatment in the community and was on medication to control his paranoia.

County Durham deputy coroner Brenda Davidson was told that, less than 24 hours before his death, Mr Walburn was arrested by police for trespass on the railway line near Ferryhill.

In the days leading up to the tragedy, Mr Walburn demonstrated increasingly agitated and paranoid behaviour, convinced he would be killed on his birthday.

He was visited at the home he shared with his brother, in Sanderson Street, by members of a community mental health team concerned about his state of health, but did not think it warranted his detention under the terms of the Mental Health Act.

Several hours later, Mr Walburn was decapitated by a train close to the Glebe Road bridge in Darlington. A jury returned a verdict of suicide while the balance of Mr Walburn's mind was disturbed.