A TEENAGER who died after injecting herself with insulin may have done it in an attempt to lose weight, an inquest heard.

Charlie Dunne was admitted to Royal Bolton Hospital on December 17 after her partner Terence Rhoden found her unconscious on the living room floor of her Atherton flat.

Bolton Coroners Court heard how the 19-year-old, who was not diabetic, was found to have a blood sugar level of 1.1, instead of the usual five.

Miss Dunne’s uncle Andrew Dunne told the court that Mr Rhoden had said to him at the hospital that he had injected his girlfriend with insulin two weeks before her death because she had heard it could cause people to lose weight.

However, Mr Rhoden told the court he had never injected Miss Dunne and said he would have noticed if she had been injecting herself.

Area coroner Alan Walsh recorded that the teenager died as a result of misadventure.

He said: “There is no evidence that Charlie intended to harm herself. This was likely a cry for attention that had the most dramatic and catastrophic consequences.

“I believe Charlie knew how to use the insulin pen but it is unlikely that she would have known the consequences of injecting insulin.”

Greater Manchester Police investigated the circumstances surrounding Miss Dunne’s death and were satisfied that there was no third party involvement.

Mr Rhoden, who is diabetic, told the court that he had found an empty insulin pen on the sofa next to Miss Dunne which had not been there when he left her several hours earlier.

It had been in the fridge where he kept his unused pens and was the last one in a box which he later found in the bin at the flat in Roberts Street.

Her blood sugar level returned to normal after she was given glucose and glucagon by paramedics but she never regained consciousness.

The inquest heard that Miss Dunne was a bubbly teenager but that she had sought help for panic attacks in the past.

In a statement, her former boyfriend Lee Eckersley said she had tried to take pills and drink coke even though she was allergic to caffeine.

Her cause of death was given as bronchial pneumonia and hypoglycaemic brain damage brought on by insulin-induced hypoglycaemia.