A TRAINEE teacher plunged to her death from a bridge after saying to a friend she wanted to show him a trick, an inquest was told.

Michelle Blake, 19, of Sunderland University, flipped over an old railway bridge at Chester Road and fell 20ft as she showed off to her boyfriend, James Fellowes, after a night out drinking.

The inquest in Sunderland was told how the teenager had carried out the same stunt on the bridge two weeks before her death, but had been dragged off by a friend.

The first-year primary education student had been in the university's Wearmouth Bar and had been "mildly drunk" when she left at 11.20pm on February 22, with Mr Fellowes and other friends.

As they walked up Chester Road to their home in Elmwood Street, the group separated.

James Fellowes, 22, who was arrested and released after a police investigation, told the inquest: "We got to the bridge and she said 'I'm going to show you a little trick'. She did a little leap on to the railing, landed on her stomach and rolled over head first.

"I was quite close. If I had stepped forward I could have reached her."

The inquest was told Michelle had died instantly.

A statement from Michelle's close friend, Rosalin Smith, revealed that the teenager had nearly fallen at the same spot two weeks earlier. Another friend, Jodie Scott, had caught her at the last moment.

A verdict of accidental death was returned.