A child sex offender’s death in Maidstone Hospital was triggered by a superbug he was already carrying, an inquest heard this week.

Kenneth Tracy, 79, of Maidstone Prison, had been in custody since April 2006 and died in January 2010.

A jury inquest at County Hall was told that while in jail he took a drugs overdose in an effort to take his own life - the third time he had tried to do so.

He was found in an unresponsive state in his cell and first transported to Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford.

It was never established what type of drugs he took, the inquest heard, as medication was commonly traded among convicts as a ‘currency’.

Due to a shortage of beds he was transferred to Maidstone Hospital where blood culture samples were taken from Mr Tracy, who was later discharged back to prison.

He became poorly again and was transferred to a prison hospital unit on the Isle of Sheppey.

Doctors at Maidstone Hospital rang prison medics to say the blood cultures revealed Mr Tracy was an MRSA carrier and that he should be returned to them.

Giving evidence Dr Sara Mumford, lead consultant microbiologist at Maidstone Hospital, said the probability was that Mr Tracy’s blood stream had become overwhelmed with infection.

His condition was additionally aggravated by the e-Coli bug, all of which resulted in multi-organ failure.

The seven-strong jury returned a verdict of death from natural causes after direction by assistant deputy coroner Miss Allison Summers.