A retired priest who was one of the first women to be ordained in the Church of England died of blood loss when her leg became trapped in her electric wheelchair, an inquest heard today.

Dawn Turner, of Caterham in Surrey, was on holiday with her husband at Angler’s Paradise at Halwill Junction near Okehampton in June 2024 when she was fatally injured.

An inquest at Devon Coroner's Court heard her husband noticed a pool of blood on the floor and saw that his wife - one of the first women to be ordained in the Church of England - had her left leg wedged between the front wheel and the leg plate of her chair.

The 86-year-old former nurse, who was wheelchair bound after several strokes, lost at least one litre of blood from a 10cm 'gaping laceration' and she lost consciousness and died.

The coroner was told that there were no defects with the made to measure chair and that Dawn's left leg would sometimes slip off the front plate and she would have to lift it back into place.

A postmortem reported that she died from the haemorrhage.

Devon area coroner Alison Longhorn recorded a conclusion of accidental death.