Security improvements have been made at a mental health unit in the years since the death of a student who escaped through a window in 1994.

Anthony Whittle, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, had been taken to the Hergest psychiatric unit at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor but fled and was later found dead.

A fresh inquest was held this week after the high court ruled that the original hearing in 1995 was inadequate.

A jury concluded Anthony, 30, died by misadventure after suffering an acute mental health episode, undergoing an assessment and leaving the unit through what was believed to be a secure window.

His parents fought for a new hearing over many years, but died before it was held.

Anthony was in the first year of a course studying forestry at Bangor University when, on 24 November 1994, he called his parents in Burnley, Lancashire, and said he wanted to come home.

Police arranged for him to be taken to the psychiatric unit where his father and brother went to meet him.

His brother, Christopher, told the hearing in Caernarfon that Anthony "hugged us and said he loved us, but said he'd changed".

"We went back to reception, but the doctor came back and said Anthony had got out through the window and down a sloping roof."

Anthony was found dead close to the A55 dual carriageway near Llandygai the next morning.

Current staff at the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which now runs the unit, told the inquest that changes had been made in the three decades since Anthony died.

Windows are more secure, and anti-climb guttering has been installed, while the system for assessing patients brought in by police has also changed.