A mentally ill man who killed his partner after becoming convinced he was possessed by the devil collapsed and died on a hike.

Keith Solly, 65, was living at the Trevor Gibbens psychiatric unit after being acquitted of murder on the grounds of insanity in July 2015.

The former Sevenoaks bus driver had throttled his partner of eight months Yvonne Tapp at the flat they shared in Lady's Gift Road, Southborough.

He then piled furniture on top of her and phoned the emergency services several times, on one occasion singing 'Oh my darling Clementine' to the operator.

When police attended the property Solly was wearing women's clothing and declared: "I am Gladys!"

The couple had met while receiving treatment at Maidstone's Priority House in 2013.

On Saturday, April 15, Solly was walking with a group near East Peckham when he told his companions he needed to sit down.

Towards the end of the hike he faded in colour and then lay down, stopped breathing and later died.

The cause of death was given as cardiomegaly - a medical condition in which the heart is enlarged - at an inquest which opened at Archbishop's Palace in Maidstone today.

The hearing was adjourned until August 2.