THE mother of Welsh rugby international Adam Jones died from a head injury after falling down the stairs at her home in the Brecon Beacons.

Retired teacher June Jones, 65, was found by her husband of 43 years, Alwyn, lying at the bottom of the staircase at their home in Abercraf at around 9am on August 4. Her foot was caught in the bannister and a book was also found nearby.

At an inquest, held at Aberdare Coroner’s Court, today Mr Jones said he and his wife had been in Merthyr Tydfil, babysitting their granddaughter, the previous evening.

Welsh rugby international Adam and his brother Nathan supported their father at the hearing.

Mr Jones said after returning home he and his wife watched television together before he went to bed at around midnight. He’d plugged his ears that night due to an ear infection.

In a statement Mr Jones said: "June carried on watching television. I sleep in the front bedroom and she would occasionally go into the spare room as she liked to read so as not to disturb me.

"I realised she was not in bed and looked in the spare room, it was empty but the sheets were turned. I looked down the stairs and she was lying face down on the stairs and her leg was trapped by the bannister.

"I ran and called for her and looked for a pulse. I rang for an ambulance."

Mr Jones said the carpet on the stairs had only been laid around a month earlier.

"Perhaps it could have been slippery," said Mr Jones who said his wife would sometimes get up in the night for a hot chocolate if she couldn’t sleep.

Asked, by coroner Andrew Barkley, what his wife had been wearing on her feet Mr Jones said he’d didn’t know but there were slippers on the floor nearby. He said his wife normally wore slippers.

Mr Jones said, in his statement, his wife was born in nearby Ystradgynlais and grown up at Ynyswen and had trained as a teacher in Salisbury and worked in London for a year.

"June worked at the local primary school and retired in 2003 but continued as a supply teacher until 2012.

"Our son Adam is a successful rugby player and we’ve travelled the world supporting him."

Pathologist Dr Mauritzio Brotto who conducted the post-mortem, at Morriston Hospital in Swansea, said Mrs Jones had died from a head injury.

Coroner Andrew Barkley said Mrs Jones had suffered a type of mini stroke, which resolves itself, in 2013 but had not been feeling unwell at the time of her death and her GP hadn’t reported anything significant.

Mr Barkley, who recorded the death as an accident, said: "She had a book with her at the time and the book may be the reason for her slipping, but that is entirely speculation."

He said the post-mortem showed there was no evidence of a heart attack, stroke or other medical event.