Husband pays tribute to ‘lovely’ wife, 50, who he found dead from hypothermia after falling outside their front door on the way home from the pub

• Andy White found his wife Naomi, 50, ‘freezing to death’ outside their home

A husband has paid tribute to his ‘lovely’ wife, who he found dead from hypothermia after falling outside their front door as she returned home from the pub.

Andy White and wife Naomi, 50, had been drinking together in Maidstone, Kent, but he decided to go home early as he was going on holiday the next morning, an inquest heard.

Mrs White had been accompanied home by a friend but fell into a lightwell at the front door after he left.

Her husband, aged 60, then woke up in the early hours of March 4 to find their front door open and his wife outside.

Paramedics were called and attempted CPR, but despite their efforts Naomi died of hyperthermia.

Andy White found his wife Naomi dead from hypothermia outside their home

Mr White paid tribute to his wife, describing her as a ‘lovely person’ who was ‘well known and well-liked’ by everyone.

He said: ‘She would talk to anyone. 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. 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.’

‘The main thing is she was a lovely woman and she’s left a huge hole in a lot of people’s hearts.’

The couple met at Mrs White’s sister’s wedding in 1998 before they tying the knot in 2003 and they had enjoyed ski trips, nights out and music events over the years.

She had injured her knee on a previous ski trip and decided to not go on the one that Mr White had planned for March 4, although he had tried to convince her to come.

Her husband said this has left things constantly ‘going through his head’ because if she would have gone home with him had she been joining him on the trip.

Mr White paid tribute to his wife of 25 years, describing her as a ‘lovely person’ who knew everyone

He said: ‘I said ‘Naomi we’ve booked a chalet now, it’s there, just come.’

‘If she’d come along, she would have gone home with me, but it’s back to ifs and buts. Things start going through your head.

‘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. 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?’

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.

She added she had heard evidence that Naomi was intoxicated and required assistance walking home, required a friend to open the door, and the fact she was seen falling on CCTV footage.

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