The financial director of a Richmond consultancy firm hanged himself with his pyjamas after blunders on a psychiatric ward, an inquest has found.

Staff at Lewisham Hospital failed to check on Rob Thomas, 49, for at least an hour before his body was found.

The Lean Coaching director had been admitted because he was a danger to himself. He was seen leaping between gardens and over fences after climbing out the window of his home in south Lambeth.

Mr Thomas was suffering from hallucinations after taking a cocktail of drugs on October 3, 2013, and believed police thought he was a paedophile and child murderer.

He was sectioned under Mental Health Act for his own protection before being found dead in his room at Lewisham Hospital.

A jury on January 20 found that he committed suicide after a three-day inquest.

Mr Thomas, who lived in Newport, regularly used crystal meth but kept his illicit drug use a secret from his partner of 20 years, Nicholas Hobbs, Southwark Coroner's Court heard.

He had suffered from cash flow problems and Mr Hobbs later learned he had more than £20,000 credit card debt.

He had begun to spend time with an escort called Tony and it is believed the pair took drugs together and that Mr Thomas paid for his services, the inquest heard. Mr Thomas, whose father killed himself when he was 19, had been diagnosed with HIV in 2006 and was on a course of drugs to manage the virus.

He told doctors he had been using crystal meth for the last three years, saying he took it between five and seven times a month to enhance his sexual performance.

Dr Ewa Okon-Rocha said Mr Thomas' civil partner of 20 years was not aware of his drug use.

Mr Thomas stayed in hospital overnight and was assessed as calmer, and not harbouring suicidal thoughts. Nurse Roseline Saint-James visited his room after he failed to collect his medication from the front desk at 6pm, where she received no answer.

Giving evidence, she told the jury she switched the light on to see if he was in there.

When she couldn't see anyone, she went to open the door but noticed a small amount of green pyjama protruding through the door where it was tied to an anti-barricade mechanism.

She pushed the door with three other colleagues and felt him fall to the ground, when the staff realised he had hanged himself.

Staff tried to resuscitate Mr Thomas and he was transferred to Kings College Hospital but he was effectively brain dead and after consulting his family doctors turned off his life support the following day. A representative of the South London and Maudsley Trust told jurors that all the anti-barricade mechanisms on the doors were faulty and had been replaced.

Conclusion: Suicide.