A mum-of-three who was assaulted and falsely imprisoned by her partner in Bury did not die of her injuries, a coroner has ruled.

Charrissa Brown-Wellington died aged 36 on February 2, 2022 after she stopped breathing at an address on Gorse Bank Way.

Charrissa, from Chadderton, was taken to Fairfield General Hospital where she was pronounced dead by staff at 5.05pm following unsuccessful attempts at resuscitation.

She had been staying her partner, Bobby Jo Hardman, who would later be sentenced to six years in prison for assault and false imprisonment of Charrissa.

Charrissa had previously been jailed for manslaughter after pushing a 30-year-old man, Philip Carter, from Blackley, into a moving tram at Manchester Victoria station in 2017 before he was killed after suffering “catastrophic injuries".

Following her release on licence she stayed at her mother's house and in temporary accommodation.

At an inquest heard at Rochdale Coroners Court on Wednesday, Charrissa’s mother Sue described her daughter as “vibrant and full of life” and as someone who “always put others before herself".

She told the court that she has spoken to Charrissa on the phone around 30 minutes before she collapsed.

Mrs Brown said she then received a call from Hardman to tell her Charrissa had been taken to hospital.

Susan recalled that the last thing Hardman told her during this phone call was that it was “game over” and that Charrissa had taken “a lot of drugs".

Home Office pathologist Dr Philip Lumb, who conducted a post-mortem examination on Charrissa, found that she had sustained a number of injuries including a broken nose and black eye.

However, he concluded that it was unlikely these injuries were the cause of her death.

“The main finding of the external examination was a considerable number of injuries”, he said.

“It would fit with an assault.”

He added that toxicology reports had found high levels of both heroine and methadone in Charrissa’s blood as well a moderate level of cocaine and a number of other prescription drugs known to cause depression of the nervous system.

While he noted Charrissa’s physical injuries were likely to be caused by physical assault, he concluded that Charrissa’s death had been caused by multiple drug toxicity.

Detective Inspector Alison Witkiewicz, of Greater Manchester Police's Bury district told the court that a criminal investigation was launched following Charrissa’s death, but murder charges were not pursued after the results of the pathology report were received.

She said: “I was satisfied from Dr Lumb’s report that there was no pathological link from Charrissa’s injuries to her death, and therefore there was no third party involvement or suspicious circumstances in her death.”

Assistant coroner for Manchester North, Matthew Cox, accepted the pathologist’s findings, and gave the cause of death as multiple drug toxicity, including heroine, methadone and cocaine.

He ruled that there had no been no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.

He said: “I am inclined to accept Dr Lumb’s evidence.

“I do accept that there was no third party involvement.”