A SOUTH African woman found dead in an asylum seekers' hostel in Galway earlier this year died from heart failure brought about by malnutrition, according to the pathology report given to the coroner's court.

Dr Charles Eugene Connolly, the consultant pathologist who performed the autopsy on Brenda Kwesikazi Mohammed, told her inquest the precise cause of death was unclear, but "it was almost certainly due to fatal cardiac rhythm, precipitated by malnutrition of the heart muscle, which was probably the result of anorexia".

Coroner Dr Ciaran McLoughlin last month returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence but adjourned the inquest until September to give Bashiru Mohammed Dauda, the dead woman's husband, time to substantiate evidence given at the inquest.

McLoughlin told the Sunday Tribune "a number of very serious allegations were made by the husband" at the hearing and that he wanted to give Dauda an opportunity to back up his claims.

Dauda told Galway coroner's court the couple were kept in Ireland against their will and were racially discriminated against. He blamed the Reception and Integration Agency for the death of his wife on 6 January last.

McLoughlin said it was the responsibility of the coroner's court to validate or refute such allegations made against state agencies.

Brenda Kwesikazi was found dead by her husband in the Eglinton hostel, Salthill, in the company of their two-year-old, Liyah.

She had been alone in the hostel room with her child as Dauda was visiting friends in Dublin for the night.

Dauda's last contact with his wife was when they had spoken on the phone the night before and she had said she felt unwell.

At the inquest, the deputy manager of the hostel, Noel Philbin, said he had seen her the night before and she looked fine.

Within weeks of the death, Dauda told the Sunday Tribune that his wife died in an Irish asylumseeker hostel because she could not bear to eat the food there.

He had pleaded with the Reception and Integration Agency to move the family to self-catering accommodation where they could prepare their own food. His wife had been attending psychiatric services in Galway and numerous healthcare professionals working with her - her GP, social worker and psychiatrist - had advocated a move for the family into self-catering accommodation.