A grieving father has hit out at a mental health trust for letting down his son in the days before he killed himself.

Andrew Knight pleaded with mental health workers to section his son, Michael, after he had made two suicide bids last summer.

The 20-year-old eventually agreed to be admitted voluntarily into hospital on August 28, only to find out that no bed was available in Norfolk, where he wanted to stay, and he would have to wait until the next day.

When mental health workers told him a bed had become free that evening, he asked to wait until the following the day as planned, but confronted the prospect of having to 'finally face his demons', his father said, and hanged himself.

Psychiatrists assessed Mr Knight on August 26 and again on August 28, both times deciding against sectioning him, though they persuaded him to be admitted voluntarily to calm his increasingly erratic behaviour.

At an inquest in Norwich yesterday, coroner Jacqueline Lake said the indecision over his admission had made Mr Knight's mental health situation worse, concluding that he 'took his own life while the balance of his mind was disturbed and while in the care of the mental health services.'

She said: 'The tragedy in this case is the fact that, after having gained Michael's agreement to accept voluntary inpatient care, a bed was not then available.

'I'm of the view that the situation was then exacerbated by the to-ing and fro-ing which then took place with regard to a bed becoming free, but only for a very short period of time before it was then unavailable.'

Mr Knight had worried his parents with his unpredictable behaviour in the months before his death, which included a drunken suicide attempt while living in Aberdeen, and one occasion when he threatened to set himself alight.

He moved from Scotland, where he had been living with his mother, to live with his father in Newton Street, Newton St Faith, in July 2012.

Struggling to deal with a relationship break-up, he invented stories of being ill and of being pursued by a gang in Scotland.

In assessments psychiatrists said Mr Knight did not show signs of depressive or psychotic behaviour, though he was prescribed medication to calm his mood.

Acting consultant psychiatrist Dr Ali Rahim Abdul told the inquest Mr Knight had not declared any intention to kill himself, but that admission to hospital would not have solved his problems.

'We didn't have clear, easy solution to it,' he said. 'The risk would have remained if he had come into hospital.'