A WOMAN plagued by fleas took her own life.

Jiying Song Richards, 50, visited her GP to complain about the bites she had picked up at a holiday cottage.

But the flea bites persisted despite the city council spraying her house.

Mrs Song Richards, who was also suffering from depression, was losing weight and having trouble sleeping.

She hanged herself in a spare bedroom at home and was only discovered by her husband when she failed to appear the next day.

An inquest at Brighton and Hove coroner’s court heard her husband, Peter Richards, had left their home in Sudeley Street, Brighton, around 10.15pm on Wednesday, August 16, to go for a drink with friends at The Chimney House pub in Preston Park.

When he returned his wife was not in their bedroom.

He assumed she was in the spare bedroom due to her irregular sleeping pattern.

But when he checked on her around 12.30pm the next day, he found his wife of 15 years hanging from a ceiling beam in the room.

She was pronounced dead at 12.49pm by an ambulance crew.

The inquest heard Mrs Song Richards had a history of depression which seemed to flare up after she returned with flea bites from a holiday cottage.

When she visited her GP at the Pavilion Surgery in Old Steine on May 18, she complained of 30 bite marks all over her ankles and legs.

She returned two months later to complain she was still getting bites, despite Brighton and Hove City Council twice spraying the couple’s home with insecticide in a bid to get rid of the pests.

Flea bites can cause small, itchy red lumps and can blister.

Fleas are often found on cats and dogs, and bites appear below the knee and around the ankle.

In a statement read to the inquest, Dr Claire Hooley said: “In an appointment attended by the couple, her husband agreed his wife had trouble sleeping, had lost weight and felt suicidal.

“But Mrs Song Richards said she had no plans to end her life.”

Mrs Songs Richards who was diagnosed with anxiety and depression was offered psychological help, but did not take it up.

The inquest also heard she had cut her wrists the week before she died.

Consultant pathologist Dr Mark Howard said in a statement that the Chinese-born graduate had a ligature mark around her neck consistent with a belt found at the scene.

Assistant coroner Catherine Palmer ruled Mrs Song Richards died from hanging.

She said: “I am satisfied she died from a deliberate act initiated by her, and Sussex Police are satisfied no else is involved.”

In a statement read out at the inquest Mr Richards said: “We spent a lot of time going to cottages and trips abroad.

“She was in good spirits before our last holiday.”