Horrified dad heard pregnant daughter say 'I'm off' before she fell from ninth-floor Leeds tower-block window

A devastated dad heard his heavily pregnant daughter say “I’m off” before she plummeted from a ninth-floor Leeds tower-block window.

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It was heard that the mum-of-five was rushed to Leeds General Infirmary on the morning of October 22, 2024 but could not be saved.

However, her unborn baby survived.

In a statement from her father, David Atkinson, read out by Assistant Coroner Naomi McLoughlin, he said that Ms Atkinson had visited that fateful morning at his ninth-floor flat in Shakespeare Towers shortly after 10am.

He said she was pleased to see him and sat on the single-seater chair next to the window.

She asked for a cigarette, which he gave her, and she opened the window for “fresh air”.

He said she opened the pane so far that it was horizontal to the rest of the window.

He asked her to close the window because it was cold. He then heard her say “I’m off” and turned to see her “feet going out of the window”.

He added: “I thought I was having a nightmare.”

He looked out of the window and could see Ms Atkinson’s lifeless body on the ground below.

But medical staff worked quickly to deliver her unborn baby.

Her father described her as a “fantastic mum” that “everything she did was for her children”.

He said: “I can’t understand why she did what she did.”

The inquest heard that Ms Atkinson had taken an overdose on two previous occasions in 2015 and 2017, had self harmed and was eventually diagnosed with emotional unstable personality disorder.

She was also known to be a heavy smoker and user of cocaine. She had been 33 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.

The inquest continues.