A pensioner fell to her death hours after warning police officers that a charity worker was planning to kill her.

The body of widow Evelyn Stevens, 88, was discovered outside her home in Hove, East Sussex.

A day earlier she had told police that Alan Wright was going to kill her so he could inherit her belongings.

Mr Wright was quickly arrested and questioned on suspicion of her murder after her body was found at 7am on January 3.

But an inquest in Brighton yesterday was told that Mr Wright could not have been responsible because he was in bed at the time – and there was no evidence linking him to the scene.

His mobile phone signal did not place him in the area, there were no physical signs that he had been there, no fingerprints at the scene and Mrs Stevens’ door had been locked from the inside.

Instead Mrs Stevens’ dressing table and a stool had been pushed to a window from which she had fallen 18ft to her death outside.

Mrs Stevens had told police officers, friends and neighbours that she feared Mr Wright would push her under a bus or cause her to fall so he could move into her flat. She had her locks changed so he could not access her home and took steps to cut him out of her will, in which he was the main beneficiary.

Because of her allegations Mr Wright, who met Mrs Stevens through his work at the Alzheimer’s Society, was arrested.

Mr Wright was held on bail as a murder suspect for more than a month, interviewed by detectives, his home was searched and he underwent a physical examination.

He told the inquest that he was surprised when Mrs Stevens turned against him in late 2012 as they had been so close.

They holidayed together, ate out and went to the theatre.

He said: “She told me she had tried to throw herself in front of a bus three times but did not have the guts to do it.” Her family said she had “cut people out” for years and that it was unsurprising she turned against him. They said she would “alien- ate” people and could be “illogical, irrational and paranoid”.

She had previously disowned her family after accusing them of stealing tens of thousands of pounds from her. In fact they had, with her agreement, put £178,000 into a high interest bond. Summing up of the inquest was adjourned until May 20.