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Teacher killed himself in gym
Inquest hears how man struggled to cope at school for pupils expelled elsewhere
A TEACHER who taught children expelled from mainstream education hanged himself from the ceiling of his school gym following a bout of depression, an inquest heard.
David Haynes, 55, who worked at Maitland Park Gym in Gospel Oak, was found dead on Christmas Eve.
Mental health experts said that he had found the environment at the school “stressful and hostile”.
An inquest at St Pancras Coroner’s Court heard on Tuesday that he had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act just a month before joining the Maitland Park Gym, which is run as a school by charity Jobtrain.
Mr Haynes’s daughter, Claire, who he was living with in Borehamwood following the break-up of a relationship in Moscow, last spoke to her father three or four days before his death.
She said: “He’d become manic for a few months.”
She said that although he had been suicidal in the past, in recent months he had denied thinking about killing himself.
“He sounded okay, maybe a bit different, but I couldn’t put my finger on it,” she said of their final conversation.
He was registered missing by Ms Haynes the day before he was found dead in the gym by his manager, Kieron Canavan.
Mr Haynes had been suffering from hypomania, a condition which can cause mood swings.
Maitland Park Gym caters for roughly 30 students.
Coroner Dr Andrew Reid said: “On the basis of all the evidence, sadly, Mr Haynes having lawful access to the gym, somewhere over the weekend of 23 to 24 of December, voluntarily and deliberately suspended himself by a ligature with the intention to end his life.”
After the inquest, parent Kim Redman said: “It’s hard work trying to teach these kids, but they (teachers) are told to get in there and get on with it.”
She said that since December, between four and six teachers had left.
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