The daughter of former Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams lay dead for up to 36 hours in a bedsit after injecting a fatal dose of heroin, an inquest heard.

Margaret Ford, known as Jubby and described as "witty and vivacious", was found dead in the flat in Montpelier Road, Brighton, in May last year.

She died after a battle against drink and drug addiction.

The body of the 39-year-old mother-of-three was discovered when a concerned friend asked the caretaker to let him in after trying the flat and getting no response.

In a statement the friend, William Joll, said: "I could see the lights were on. I knew the caretaker had a key so I went to get him.

"As I walked into the room I saw Margaret lying on the floor. I took one look at her and realised she was in a terminal condition."

Caretaker John Jordan told the inquest in Brighton he had seen Mrs Ford a week earlier with a scruffy man and she had "seemed out of it".

A month earlier she had returned from Dublin after spending several weeks at a convent retreat for people with alcohol-related problems and friends hoped she had successfully kicked her drug habit.

The inquest heard Mrs Ford died from a fatal dose of heroin and the level of alcohol in her blood was two-and-a-half times the legal drink-driving limit. She and her satirist father, who did not attend the inquest, were extremely close. He gave up drinking more than 30 years ago because of his own problems with alcohol.

Mr Ingrams, 66, now editor of the Oldie magazine, also has a son, Fred, 40, who is an artist.

A second son, Arthur, who was disabled, died in childhood.

Mrs Ford had been married for 14 years to David Ford, an executive with society caterers The Admirable Crichton but had recently moved temporarily from the marital home in Lewes, because of health problems.

Mr Ford, son of Sir Edward Ford, a former private-secretary to both the Queen and King George VI, did attend the inquest but was too upset to comment.

Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley recorded a verdict that her death was an accident.