A MARRIED woman out celebrating her friend’s birthday was kissing, touching and flirting with another man just minutes before she fell to her death, an inquest has heard.

Friends and witnesses said 40-year-old Louise Burkes and Mark Heane were “all over each other” during the course of the night at Drummonds in New Street, Worcester, on Friday, November 30.

The mother-of-three’s widower, Karl, was not present when the inquest at the coroner’s court in Stourport-on-Severn opened this morning.

One witness, Claire Windsor-Peplow, said she saw Mrs Burkes, who she knew in passing, and Mr Heane flirting with each other.

“There was physical contact between the two of them,” she said. "She wasn’t offended by it at all.”

Another witness, Tara O’Neill, said she saw the pair on the patio at the back of the pub.

“I remember seeing a man and a woman kissing and they were all over each other,” she said.

“They were moving along the fence. They came to a fire escape and they looked like they didn’t realise it was there because they fell through the door. I remember seeing one on top of the other because they had fallen through.”

Linda Williamson said she had watched her friend, Mrs Burkes, of Swan Drive, Droitwich, dance with Mr Heane.

“They were being quite flirtatious,” she said. “And they were dancing together, touching each other but very smiley and very happy. It didn’t look sordid.”

She said Mrs Burkes and Mr Heane disappeared from the dance floor for a short time and she then noticed Mr Heane, who approached her on the dance floor.

“When he came back he said ‘Did you know your mate is such an athlete, she’s just jumped the wall and done a runner’,” she said.

Mrs Williamson said she thought that her friend had realised the situation she had got herself into and wanted to leave.

The inquest heard friends carried on dancing until about 12.45am when they started to look for Mrs Burkes.

Mrs Williamson said she bumped into Mr Heane near the entrance of Drummonds and noticed he had blood on his arm.

She said he just dismissed the injury and the group of friends kept on asking him where Mrs Burkes had gone.

A doorman overheard the conversation and sent one of his colleagues around the back of the pub to have a look.

Steven Taylor, head doorman and assistant manager at Drummonds, said he couldn’t see anything at first but on a second visit around the back he saw Mrs Burkes’ body through a hole in the fence.

Emergency services were called and he ran around the back of the pub, along City Walls Road, to her aid.

He said that she was still breathing and there was a pulse. Police arrived, followed by paramedics, at which point Mrs Burkes’ pulse had stopped.

The emergency services tried to revive her before she was taken by ambulance to hospital.

The inquest continues.