A YOUNG sportswoman who had been battling with eating disorders drowned in a bath after drinking alcohol, an inquest has heard.

Natasha Warren, 23, who grew up in North Petherton and attended Wellington School, was a keen horsewoman and swimmer, who had competed for the county swimming team. 

She was finalising her dissertation for her sports post-graduate course at Oxford Brookes University while working as an assistant teacher in Brighton. 

An inquest in Taunton last week heard she had been staying at her partner’s house in the weeks before her death, and he returned home from work on March 30 and found her in the bath, with the taps still running and her face above the water.

He called an ambulance and then performed CPR but although she was taken to Musgrove Park Hospital doctors couldn’t save her. 

Natasha’s mother Carol told the inquest her daughter had been a confident and brave teenager but had struggled with eating disorders.

She told the inquest Natasha did drink too much on some occasions but was not addicted to alcohol. 

Recording a verdict of death by misadventure, the West Somerset Coroner, Michael Rose, said: “This is simply a tragic case. Natasha was going to teach PE, which she had studied for.

“It is good to see the university awarded her the degree she deserved.

“I think she slipped below the water without realising what was happening and sadly died in a state of alcohol intoxication.”