A MOTHER was seven times over the drink-drive limit when she collapsed at home and died from alcohol poisoning, an inquest heard.

Kylee Bell was found by her young children at about 5pm after drinking heavily during the morning.

Her children had left her sleeping after being unable to move her on to the sofa and a bottle of wine was later found hidden in one of their bedrooms.

The 36-year-old's mother told Worthing Coroner’s Court that her mother was a social but not excessive drinker.

She said she was a “loveable, funny and charismatic woman” and dedicated to her children.

Gardener Ms Bell, who lived in Canada Road, Arundel, had recently taken up bell-ringing with her daughter at the local church and her son was a certified genius.

Yesterday the West Sussex coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death after hearing there was nothing to suggest she wanted to take her own life.

The inquest heard an ambulance and then police had been called to her house shortly after 5pm on December 12.

Police constable Carly Wright, from Bognor police station, arrived and went upstairs to see Ms Bell’s children.

She said: “The circumstances that were told to me were that Kylee had been drinking that morning and that she had fallen asleep.

“The children had left her to sleep and they had gone out around 2pm and when they returned they went straight upstairs.

“They then returned at about 5pm and found Kylee who was blue in the face.”

Asked by the coroner about a phone-call that had been made, PC Wright added: “It was mentioned to me that when their mother had fallen asleep they tried to move her on to the sofa which they could not do.

“I was told that they called their grandmother who told them to leave her to sleep where she was.”

Asked whether she had seen any alcohol on the property, PC Wright said she found a bottle of wine underneath some clothing in one of the children’s bedrooms.

She added: “When asked about it, it was stated that it was being hidden […] from their mother.”

Ms Bell’s post mortem found a blood alcohol reading of 577mg, just more than seven times the drink-drive limit of 80mg.

West Sussex coroner Penelope Schofield described the reading as very high and accepted that it may have been added to by the evening before, when her family said she had been out to pubs carol singing with her children.

Her family added she did not usually drink during the day, with her mother noting she also suffered from asthma and a chest problem.

Ms Whitfield added her daughter had been “down in the dumps” and worried about whether she had enough money for Christmas presents, but when she had seen her a week earlier she was her “usual, funny self”.

SHE WANTED THE BEST FOR CHILDREN’S FUTURE

ON the evening of December 11, Kylee Bell went carol singing with her two children in her hometown of Arundel.

The trio were well known in the neighbourhood – less than a month earlier she and her son Jayden had featured in local papers after he scored 159 out of 161 in the Mensa test.

Ms Bell and her chess champion daughter Torrin had also recently started going to bell-ringing sessions at her local church, St Nicholas.

Yet by 5pm the next day, their detached home in Canada Road, Arundel, was crawling with paramedics and police after the two children called for help upon finding her unconscious.

The single mother had been drinking heavily that morning, the coroner found, leading to alcohol poisoning that triggered fatal lung problems.

Ms Bell’s mother Marisa Whitfield told The Argus in the days after the tragedy: “The two children are being very brave.

“This is not the type of Christmas Jayden and Torrin were expecting but we will do the best we can for them.

“The family will all be staying strong for each other. That is what is helping me cope with everything.”

Ms Whitfield told the inquest she went to visit her daughter regularly at home to see the children and help out.

She said: “Kylee was a lovable, funny and charismatic woman who was musically talented, playing the piano flute and guitar.

“She had a passion for life and was dedicated to giving her children the best future in every way.”

Ms Whitfield said she had seen her daughter about a week before and remembered her as her usual funny self if a bit “down in the dumps” as Christmas approached.

Ms Whitfield said: “She was worried about Christmas – she did not have a lot of money and was worried about presents and things.”

A police officer, who was sitting upstairs with Ms Bell’s children in the hours after she was found unconscious, moved a piece of clothing so she could sit nearer them.

PC Carly Wright said there was a bottle of wine underneath and she was told that it was hidden from their mother.

Downstairs another police officer photographed what the coroner described as a “substantial number of bottles” in a recycling bin.

Asking about this at the inquest, a relative said Ms Bell had won a couple of bottles of alcohol at a recent tombola.

Ms Whitfield told the coroner her daughter drank socially but not excessively and did not binge drink.

A fundraising appeal set up by friends and family to help give the children the best chance in life has so far raised more than £6,000.

Ms Bell had hoped that Jayden, a pupil at Ormiston Six Villages Academy in Westergate, would go to a top boarding school where he could thrive.

Weeks before her death, after Jayden triumphed in his Mensa test, she said: “He is just a regular kid from a single-parent family at a state school in West Sussex.

“I had always known he was different and very bright but this is off-the-scale clever.”