A MUM-OF-TWO died after being outside in freezing temperatures for nearly six hours wearing only a fancy dress costume.

Warrington Coroner’s Court heard that Jeanette Jackson suffered hypothermia after her body temperature dropped 10 degrees below average after being refused entry into a taxi for being too drunk at her friend Lynda Davies’ home on Poplars Avenue, Orford., in January 2009.

The inquest heard that Mrs Davies told Mrs Jackson, aged 47, to go home because her elderly mum Agnes, who suffers from senile dementia, was being looked after at the home by her boyfriend Michael Beswick.

She said she did not want anyone drunk around her mum.

The court heard Mrs Davies called police seven times before an officer came out.

The inquest which started on Monday heard that Mrs Jackson did not leave and remained outside the house banging on the front door from 8.45pm until after midnight.

Mrs Jackson, of Knutsford Road, Latchford, was dressed as a police officer, wearing a short black skirt, a white shirt, which was tied below her chest, and had removed her shoes.

A weather expert told the hearing that the temperature outside would have been around -6 degrees.

Later, when Mrs Davies returned from the Hop Pole bar at around 12.40am she found Mrs Jackson shivering on her doorstep and her door had holes in it and blood ‘everywhere’.

Mrs Davies said: “Because there was blood everywhere I wouldn’t touch her, I just called the police. I wasn’t going to touch her like that I was frightened. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Cheshire Coroner, Nicholas Rheinberg, said: “You know now that she was dying, she was frozen to the bone.”

Mrs Davies said that she didn’t expect her friend to stay there all that time.

Mr Beswick said: “I didn’t think she was in distress.

I thought she would have toddled off to one of her friends’. In hindsight I wish I had called the police, I think about it every day.”

Shouts from Mrs Jackson for her keys and cards were ignored because Mr Beswick said it was not his house, the court heard.

Mrs Davies made seven calls to a police landline number to report the damage to her door between 12.40am and 2.38am until an officer attended.

PC Jason Sale arrived at 2.55am.

He arrested Mrs Jackson after she swung a punch at him and called for a woman officer to help him because of her dress.

When PC Sharon Clydesdale arrived at Poplars Avenue at 3.30am Mrs Jackson’s condition had deteriorated and police decided to take her to hospital.

The pair tried to move Mrs Jackson and take her to their car but she was too heavy for PC Clydesdale to carry.

PC Clydesdale said: “I took her left arm and PC Sale took her right but as we lifted she just couldn’t hold her weight.

“She dropped her head back then I realised that her eyelids were open but her eyes were rolled back to the left side and she wasn’t breathing.”

The police administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

When police called for an ambulance, paramedic Stephen Hickman said Mrs Jackson was lying on the floor and was ice cold.

They arrived at hospital at 3.45am.

Hospital staff tried to raise Mrs Jackson’s temperature and revive her but she was pronounced dead at 5.25am.

The court heard that Mrs Jackson had drunk so much alcohol that she could have died from alcohol posioning alone.

The jury af the four-day inquest, was considering its verdict as the Warrington Guardian went to press.