A grieving husband has spoken of the harrowing moment he found his wife frozen to death outside their home, after suffering a fall on her way home from the pub.

Paramedics were called and attempted CPR, but there was nothing that could be done, and Naomi White was pronounced dead in the early hours of March 4.

Husband Andy paid tribute to his “lovely, clever and well-liked” wife this week, following an inquest at County Hall which heard how she died outside their home in Boxley Road after a night out in Maidstone.

He said her death was just the latest in a string of tragedies to have touched Naomi’s family, following the death of her sister Tracey, from illness, in 2017, and her brother Wayne, who was killed outside McDonald’s in Maidstone the same year.

Speaking at the Style and Winch pub, where they had last shared a drink together, Andy recalled how he had gone home early on the night of Naomi’s death, as he was due to be picked up for a skiing holiday the following morning – but had woken in the early hours to find the door open and his wife outside.

The inquest heard how Naomi, 50, had been accompanied by a friend, Peter Wickens, back to the house but had then fallen into a lightwell after he left, and died of hypothermia.

Still coming to terms with the tragic circumstances, Andy said his wife had made an impact on everyone she met and would be sorely missed.

“She would talk to anyone,” said Andy, 60. “She had lots of friends and made friends easily. If you walked into a pub as a stranger she would talk to you and make you welcome. She was a lovely person.

“Peter Wickens had moved here from Tonbridge, and Naomi being her normal self befriended him. She introduced him to everyone so he became friends with us, and that's the type of person she was.

“Naomi knew everyone – she was one of those people. She'd spent her whole youth from 15 or 16 in pubs and pool teams. She was well known and well-liked."

Naomi and Andy met at Naomi’s sister’s wedding in 1998 before getting married in 2003, and the couple had enjoyed 25 years together, enjoying ski trips, nights out and music events.

Having injured her knee on a previous ski trip, she had decided not to go on the one planned for March 4, although Andy had tried to convince her to come.

“I said ‘Naomi we've booked a chalet now, it's there, just come’,” said Andy. “If she'd come along, she would have gone home with me – but it's back to ifs and buts.

“I'd had a few beers so I went home and went to bed. I’d gone to bed but I woke up as you do at my age just before 2am. I came downstairs, saw the light was on and the front door open slightly, and obviously realised she was outside and that's when I found her.”

Still coming to terms with the events of that night, Andy said Naomi’s loss had been harder than any in his life.

“Things start going through your head,” he added. “I'm lying upstairs while she's lying out in the garden freezing to death. If I'd woken up an hour earlier... every day a million things go racing through your head. Peter’s the same.

“It's very hard. I've lost family - my mum and my dad, everyone has lost people, but when you actually lose your partner it's hard. When you've spent 25 years together, it's like a big void. It’s like - what now?”

Despite the tragic loss, Andy said his wife had enriched many lives, and she would be remembered as a skilled financial advisor, pool player and much-loved friend.

“Apart from (her daughter) Chloe, she was on paper the cleverest one amongst us, she had something like 11 GCSEs, she went to Invicta Girls Grammar - she was very clever and very good at her job.

“The company she worked for before Covid were doing mortgages for celebrities - Andy Murray's coach was one of her clients, that sort of stuff, but it was a bit of a niche market. With Covid the worked dried up so she found another job.”

Remembering her ace pool skills, Andy added:“She played for The Vic pool team, which is now the ticket office at the station. She won the Maidstone ladies’ championship five years in a row, so she was good at pool.

“The best final was her and Chloe. Chloe is very good as well so they played in the final one year, and she beat Chloe.”

But while she would be remembered for all those skills, Andy added: “The main thing is she was a lovely woman and she’s left a huge hole in a lot of people’s hearts.”

Coroner Catherine Wood recorded Naomi’s cause of death as hypothermia caused by alcohol intoxication.

Ms Wood said she had heard nothing to suggest the death was anything other than an accident, adding she had "heard evidence she was intoxicated and required assistance walking home, required a friend to open the door, and the fact she was seen falling on CCTV footage, and that the pathologist considered she was intoxicated."