A POPULAR student plunged to his death from a 10th floor window which had been tampered with by a previous resident, an inquest heard.

Paul Millgate fully opened a communal kitchen window in Bournemouth University halls of residence despite locks which should have only allowed it to tilt, Dorset coroner Sheriff Payne was told.

The Bournemouth inquest was told that a previous resident of the flat in Lyme Regis House, Holdenhurst Road, had over-ridden the lock with a special key, available on the internet.

Mr Payne heard the keys were popular with students who wanted to smoke in their flats, despite rules forbidding them to do so.

Senior duty manager at the accommodation, Sam Griffiths, said extra locks have been added to the windows since the death of the 20-year-old first year psychology student.

But he stressed the windows were fully compliant with Health and Safety rules at the time of the tragedy.

Mr Millgate, from Crowborough in East Sussex, died of devastating multiple injuries after falling days after breaking up with his girlfriend.

The inquest heard he had bombarded his girlfriend, Aleasha Istead, with text messages. He told her: "My life is not worth living" and sent pictures taken out of the window before his death.

He also told his flatmates he was going to jump out of the window and put a butter knife to his neck, asking: "Shall I kill myself?"

Suicide notes were found in his room.

The coroner was told Mr Millgate had been drinking heavily in the days leading up to his death on April 4 last year and he fell from the window while his flatmates and others were enjoying a party in a different room in the flat.

Witnesses told how Mr Millgate's body was visible from many of the 400 flats in the block and that some students were taking pictures and video as paramedics worked.

Recording a verdict that he took his own life, Mr Payne said: "It is my conclusion that he did deliberately take himself out of the window and sadly ended up on the ground below having jumped from the 10th floor.

"This could never have been a cry for help. He must have realised that by jumping out of there, there was only one result and that would have been his death."