The death of an Oxford woman who fell from a first floor window at her nursing home was an accident, a jury at her inquest ruled.

Maisie Jones, 82, who suffered from dementia, fell 11ft from the window of Brookfield Christian Care Home in Oxford on June 18, 2003.

Nurse Florence Adekye discovered during a routine check at 1.30am that Mrs Jones, a former beautician, had disappeared from her room. Ms Adekye told the inquest at Oxford Coroner's Court she found a window in the home's lounge was wide open with a chair beside it.

Mrs Jones was lying on the ground beneath, her fall apparently broken by lavender bushes.

She was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital suffering from a fractured pelvis. Dr Adam Dorowski, of the department of geratology at the hospital, told the court the injury was not suitable to be operated on.

After a short stay Mrs Jones was discharged back to the home.But he said on July 23 she was readmitted to hospital as she was refusing to eat or drink and had become dehydrated.

She contracted bronchial pneumonia and died on August 7, six weeks after the fall.

Government health and safety inspector Stephen Hanson-Hall told the inquest that there were mechanisms on the windows of the home to prevent them being opened fully.

But he said it was very simple to override the mechanism, which Mrs Jones must have done.

Sheena Cunningham, manager of the home in Little Bury, Greater Leys, said the windows had not been locked at the time of Mrs Jones' death.

She said that they had since been locked and replacement restrictor devices had been fitted.

She said that to open the window and override the device Mrs Jones would have had to have used "considerable force".

She told the inquest that although Mrs Jones suffered from dementia, she was in good physical health before her fall.

Dr Darowski told the court: "One would expect a patient with dementia to be on a downhill path. Any incident will accelerate that path downward it would bring forward a deterioration."

The jury decided that although the fall caused Mrs Jones' health to decline, her death was accidental.