A CONVICTED sex offender who molested a child in a hospital car park has died at a metal health facility in Widnes, a coroner’s court heard.

David Byrom was a patient at the Gateway Recovery Centre, a mental health clinic on Bennetts Lane, which is where he died aged 62 after being diagnosed with incurable cancer.

Byrom, who was known to have several aliases, was convicted of charges at Liverpool Crown Court back in 2006, area coroner Jacqueline Devonish revealed during an inquest into his death at Cheshire Coroner’s Court on Wednesday.

Formerly a patient at Whiston Hospital, Byrom was found guilty of assaulting a 16-year-old girl in the car park of the hospital, the St Helens Star reported back in 2006.

David had been undergoing treatment for schizophrenia in a ward at the mental health hospital, and despite being convicted only a year prior to the offences, he was reportedly allowed to ‘roam’ the hospital grounds without restrictions.

The Star reported back in November 2006 that Byrom ‘performed a sexual act in front of a mother and her 16-year-old girl in the hospital car park’ and then ‘assaulted the girl as her mother was at the car park's pay point’.

He was given an immediate jail sentence at Liverpool Crown Court and Coroner Devonish confirmed that he was ‘detained at HMP Liverpool’.

Since those offences, Byrom was under the care of the mental health recovery centre in Widnes, where he subsequently died on March 28.

In a written inquest read out to Cheshire Coroner’s Court, coroner Devonish said Byrom had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumour that was incurable.

“David Byrom, also known as Worthington-Byrom, was born on December 18, 1961. He was a screen printer and was residing at Gateway Recovery Centre.

“The medical cause of death has been confirmed as cancer. On November 3, 2008, David Byrom was detained under the Mental Health Act.

“Following a biopsy at Warrington Hospital, he was found to have incurable cancer.

“His death was recorded as from natural causes.”

Ms Devonish concluded the hearing by passing on her condolences to the family of Byrom who were not present at the inquest.