Inspiral Carpets drummer killed himself after 20 years of "unbearable" tinnitus

The wife of the Inspiral Carpets drummer Craig Gill has said there needs to be a greater awareness of the devastating effects of tinnitus after an inquest into his death returned an open verdict.

Rose Marie Gill issued a statement about the condition after an inquest into her husband’s death heard how the only concern he had in his life was the tinnitus he had had for more than 20 years.

Gill told a coroner how she discovered her 44-year-old husband dead at their home in Greenfield, Greater Manchester, after returning with their children from a day out.

She told the inquest in Heywood, Greater Manchester, that her husband’s death had baffled everyone who knew him and that her husband had no history of depression or suicidal thoughts. “That’s what’s shocking about it. I have no idea where this has come from,” she told the senior coroner for north Manchester, Joanne Kearsley.

In a statement issued after the hearing, she said her husband’s tinnitus became “so unbearable he felt there was no cure” and urged more awareness of the problem and men’s mental health.

She said in the statement: “Instead of reaching out, on that day in November, Craig made the saddest and most tragic of decisions.”

Gill said: “For the past 20 years, Craig suffered from debilitating tinnitus, a condition caused by not protecting his hearing when enjoying the careers he loved the most – a successful musician, DJ and love of listening to music.

“His condition affected his day-to-day wellbeing and he suffered in silence with both sleep deprivation and anxiety.”

She said: “Although we struggle with the day-to-day existence of life without Craig, we are now able to discuss and promote awareness of tinnitus and men’s mental health. It takes courage for men to speak out, to talk to one another, to share their thoughts and their fears.

“If you are one of those men, like Craig, we urge you to reach out to those you love and find comfort in sharing your pain.”

Inspiral Carpets members Graham Lambert, Stephen Holt and Clint Boon attended the inquest. Boon read a statement from the band that said: “We will always remember Craig for his great sense of humour, his passion for music, his incredible skills as a musician and his devotion to his family.

“Craig was a friend, a loyal son and brother, philosophical father and important member of our gang. We feel extremely privileged to have spent the last 30 years making music with him.”

Earlier, Gill had told the inquest how the whole family had set off early in the morning on Sunday 18 November last year and travelled to Media City, in Salford, to watch the recording of a children’s TV Christmas special.

She said that after they arrived at the studios, her husband said it was not something he really wanted to do and they decided he would go home. She said she thought this was perfectly normal behaviour as most men would not want to spend a day watching a children’s show in Christmas jumpers.

Gill described how she spoke to her husband on the phone during the day but he was not at the station to meet them. She said she and the children walked the short distance home, where she discovered his dead body.

DI Ian Harratt said a police investigation had shown no sign of any disturbance at the house but also found no suicide note.

Harratt told the coroner: “There was nothing in the information we have received that this was premeditated or preplanned. It appears to me that this is something that was completely out of the blue. It was something that took everybody who knew Mr Gill completely by surprise.”

The coroner told Gill it was clear her husband was responsible for taking his own life but she could not record a conclusion of suicide because she could not be sure, to the criminal standard of proof, that he had intended to kill himself.

Recording an open conclusion, Kearsley said she was sorry she could not offer the family an explanation for what happened.

She said he was also described as a “pillar of the community” who was “thought of so highly by everybody”.

Gill was a founding member of the Inspiral Carpets and played with the band throughout their heyday in the 1990s, returning when the band reformed 20 years later to tour and record their self-titled album in 2014.

In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14.

Inspiral Carpets drummer killed himself after 20 years of "unbearable" tinnitus

NHS nurse killed himself after losing his job, inquest told

An award-winning nurse who died after setting himself on fire outside Kensington Palace suffered a “mental breakdown” over how his NHS employers handled his dismissal, an inquest heard.

Amin Abdullah, 41, died on 9 February last year close to the London home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after being sacked from Charing Cross hospital where he worked as a charge nurse.

An inquest into his death on Monday heard how he had previously attempted to take his own life and had told a patient in the unit where he was being treated he was going to set himself on fire.

Giving evidence at Westminster coroner’s court, his partner, Terry Skitmore, said Abdullah slipped into a depressive state during a disciplinary investigation which began in September 2015 and after he subsequently lost his job at Imperial College healthcare trust.

Skitmore said Abdullah, who “lived for the job”, was a “caring” and “dedicated nurse” and “struggled to understand what he was being disciplined for”.

The inquest heard how he had written a letter for another colleague caught up in a complaint made by a patient “to show how she could respond”, resulting in him getting embroiled in the issue.

Skitmore said Abdullah, after initial meetings and the investigation, did not hear anything about the disciplinary “for many weeks” and put in a grievance regarding the delays in a bid to get some answers.

On 21 December 2015 he was handed an instant dismissal on the grounds the letter he had written to support his colleague was “untrue”.

Skitmore said the delays in the disciplinary process eventually led to the mental breakdown of his Malaysian-born partner, who grew up in an orphanage and became a British citizen in 2009.

Under questioning, Skitmore said: “The disciplinary and additionally the 10 weeks of ignoring him caused him to have a mental breakdown and caused him to do what he did. I have got to live the rest of my life with that, and I do not want anyone else to go through that.”

Holding up a picture of his partner smiling on holiday in Spain, he described him as the “happiest man in the world”, adding: “Seven months later I’ve got a pot of ashes with candles beside it. They have lost a magnificent nurse and I have lost a magnificent partner.”

Skitmore also revealed in a statement read out by the coroner, Dr Shirley Radcliffe, that Abdullah had told him his mother had killed herself through self-immolation, but that a friend of his partner said she may have jumped in a river.

The inquest heard how on 27 January last year Abdullah was voluntarily admitted to St Charles mental health unit, after attempting to take his own life.

Abdullah had lodged an appeal against his dismissal in January 2016 and a hearing date had been set for 11 February.

The inquest heard how on 8 February Abdullah had been allowed to leave the unit to go to collect a suit ahead of the impending hearing. He had at points during his time in the care of the hospital been placed on observation and had been given 15-minute escorted cigarette breaks because of the risk deemed by staff.

He had also told another patient at one point that he intended to go out the following day and “have sex and set himself on fire” – something he denied when it was later put to him by a doctor.

Consultant psychiatrist Anna Higgitt said the unit took into account things he was saying to people which “varied at times”, when making the decision to extend his unescorted leave to one hour.

She said “a lot of the time he was planning for the future” and had told staff he would find a job somewhere else, and ahead of the hearing had even been out to have a haircut.

“He wanted from the start to have more freedom than we offered. We negotiated and he stuck to what we agreed. Up until he did not come back – he stuck to it really well,” she told the inquest.

The inquest is expected to last three days.

• In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123.
  In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14.

NHS nurse killed himself after losing his job, inquest told

Mother of teenager who killed himself appeals for kindness online

A mother whose teenage son took his own life after being the victim of bullying that began over a computer game has said everyone has a collective responsibility to prevent other young lives being lost.

In an open letter, Lucy Alexander said her son Felix, 17, was so damaged by the abuse, isolation and unkindness he had experienced before his death that he did not realise anyone at his school cared about him.

The sixth-form student, from Worcester, was pronounced dead after being hit by a train near the city on 27 April.

An inquest heard the “kind and caring” teenager with a bright future had moved to Pershore high school after experiencing difficulties at a previous school. Three weeks after his death, hundreds attended his funeral and there was standing room only because the church was so full.

In her letter published in the Worcester News, Alexander, who also has a daughter Charlotte, 22, and a son Ben, 21, said she was not writing for sympathy but for the other children like Felix who were also being bullied.

The bullying had begun, she told the Sun, when her son was just 10 and classmates at the fee-paying King’s school where he had previously been a pupil teased him because he was not allowed to play the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It spiralled from there and he later became the victim of online abuse.

She said of her son in her letter: “His confidence and self-esteem had been eroded over a long period of time by the bullying behaviour he experienced in secondary education.

“It began with unkindness and social isolation and over the years, with the advent of social media, it became cruel and overwhelming. People who had never even met Felix were abusing him over social media and he found that he was unable to make and keep friends as it was difficult to befriend the most ‘hated’ boy in the school.

Felix’s family have been fundraising for Place2Be, a children’s mental health charity which provides in-school support and training for emotional wellbeing. Photograph: Family handout/PA

“He did make friends at his new school and the teaching staff found him to be bright, kind and caring. He was however so badly damaged by the abuse, isolation and unkindness he had experienced, that he was unable to see just how many people truly cared for him.”

The letter urged children to be kind always and to report bullying if they saw it. It said: “Be that one person prepared to stand up to unkindness. You will never regret being a good friend. I have been told that ‘everyone says things they don’t mean on social media’. Unkindness is dismissed as ‘banter’ and because they cannot see the effect of their words they do not believe there is one.”

She also said that teachers should be looking out for the signs of children struggling, especially if they were always sitting alone during lunch. Her final appeal was to parents. She said: “Please take an interest in what your children do online. We don’t like to think that our children could be responsible for being cruel to another child, but I have been shocked by the ‘nice’ kids who were responsible in part for Felix’s anguish. Even if they only say something horrible once, that will not be the only person who will have said something that week.”

Parents should encourage their children to self-edit and to use social media for kindness, she said. “On several occasions we removed all form of social media from Felix as it was causing so much distress, but that just isolated him further,” she said.

“Our lives have been irrevocably damaged by the loss of our wonderful son; please don’t let it happen to any other family.”

The family have been fundraising for Place2Be, a children’s mental health charity which provides in-school support and training for emotional wellbeing.

The charity’s director of communications, Jennie Meadows, said: “We are inspired by Lucy Alexander’s commitment to bringing about positive change from such a tragic and heartbreaking situation.”

She said the money raised following the death of Felix would help the charity reach more young people. She said: “The support that we have received as an organisation in memory of Felix is both overwhelming and unprecedented.”

• In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here

Mother of teenager who killed himself appeals for kindness online

Pensioner "shot himself dead" in Surrey doctor"s surgical treatment

“The surgery is constantly throwing stuff out so hearing the bang of a bin is quite widespread but this was louder.

“I went about the corner and there were lots of folks and police autos about – it was chaotic.

“I did consider the noise was much louder than the typical bin noise and it sounded like a gun shot.”

Employees at The Mane Street barbers opposite the surgical procedure mentioned they have been told a guy had shot himself dead in the lavatories.

A female member of workers, who asked not to be named, mentioned: “The first issue we heard was the police sirens screaming as the initial of nine vehicles sped up.

“Then there were armed police swarming about, the doctor’s surgical procedure was closed and no person was allowed in.

“I didn’t hear a gunshot myself but an elderly couple who had been in the surgical treatment at the time said a man had shot himself.

“An ambulance turned up outdoors soon right after the police but was turned away, which makes me believe it is proper that the gentleman died.

“Everybody in the surgery had to give statements to the police before they could depart.

“From what I’ve heard the man shot himself in the toilet or the reception area, not in an appointment.”

Staff at the surgery, which has been sealed off, refused to comment on the incident.

Surrey Police confirmed they had been referred to as to reports of a “sudden death”.

A police officer was stationed by a silver Ford Focus ST parked just 25 yards from the surgery entrance, believed to be the dead man’s auto.

A spokesman said: “Surrey Police was known as to a doctor’s surgery in Station Road, Frimley just just before 11am this morning (Monday, 2 June) following reports of a sudden death.

“Officers and other emergency providers attended the spot after reports that a firearm had been discharged within the building.

“The entire body of a guy, believed to be in his 80s, was discovered at the scene, the place he was pronounced dead.

“Officers are carrying out a thorough investigation into the conditions surrounding the death but at this stage there is no indication of any third get together involvement or wider danger to the local local community.

“A publish mortem examination will take spot in due course.”

Adam Wicks, who operates at Vickery and Co estate agents in Frimley Higher Street, which is in the up coming street, said police officers had asked to see the firm’s CCTV footage.

Mr Wicks, from Camberley, Surrey, stated: “I did not hear anything at all myself as we’re too far away but there was a great deal of commotion at the surgical procedure.

“There are about 6 or 7 police automobiles all about the doctor’s surgery.

“The police came in asking about our CCTV but we never have any and they would not tell us anything.”

Pensioner "shot himself dead" in Surrey doctor"s surgical treatment