A pensioner set herself on fire in her armchair after years of self-harm and suicide attempts, an inquest heard.

Jessie Mary Hutson died of horrific burns at her sheltered housing accommodation in Ifield Way, Gravesend, on January 31, 2016.

The 68-year-old had made numerous calls to emergency services in the days leading up to her death including telling the fire service and police minutes before the blaze that she intended to set herself on fire.

She had been saved by one of her carers hours earlier after she used a cigarette lighter to burn her clothing, the inquest at Maidstone’s Archbishop’s Palace was told on Monday.

Speaking at the inquest, Mrs Hutson’s daughter Joanne Stevens said her mum had suffered with anxiety for as long as she could remember and had started drinking in the 1980s following a bereavement. She had taken several overdoses over the years and harmed herself on numerous occasions, her daughter said.

Mrs Stevens, a carer who had looked after her mum, said Mrs Hutson’s mental health problems had “got worse” in the last few years of her life but she “didn’t realise how bad it was”.

Mrs Stevens added: “I didn’t know what it was like to have a mum, it was like having another child.”

Emergency services were called to Mrs Hutson’s flat in Watling Court, run by Abbeyfield Kent Society, numerous times the day she died.

Carer Anrit Pannu said she called for an ambulance and rang the NHS’ mental health crisis team because Mrs Hutson was continually threatening to harm herself and then set her jumper on fire.

Mrs Pannu put out the flames with her coat and removed all the lighters from the flat, she told the hearing.

The carer said: “She started rocking and saying ‘I need help, I need to go to hospital’. Then she said: ‘It’s coming’. I said: ‘What’s coming?’. She said: ‘I’m going to kill myself’.”

Mrs Pannu stayed until paramedics arrived.

Pathologist Dr Ann Fleming told the hearing the fire had burnt deep into Mrs Hutson’s skin and said soot in her airways indicated she was alive at the time of the fire.

Dr Fleming gave the cause of death as asphyxia due to suffocation.

Watling Court is described as an extra care scheme, combining independent living with 24-hour support.

The hearing continues but was scheduled to end tomorrow (Friday).