AN elderly woman found her son in the bath covered in knife wounds and barely alive, an inquest has heard.

Robert Havard, of Arley Lane, Shatterford, was pronounced dead on Sunday night on arrival at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

The 39-year-old lived with his mother and cared full-time for her.

"At 8.30pm he went to have a bath," said Worcestershire coroner Victor Round, who opened an inquest into the death on Tuesday.

"He did not reappear and his mum went to investigate. She found him in the bath full of blood-stained water."

Paramedics discovered he had stab wounds, cut wrists and a cut throat and treated him at the scene before rushing him to hospital.

Police found an apparent suicide note in Mr Harvard's diary, said the coroner who adjourned the inquest to a date to be fixed.