Camden New Journal - News: Solicitor 'divied' in front of Tube train

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Camden New Journal - By CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 3 January 2008

Solicitor ‘dived’ in front of Tube train

A SOLICITOR who was due to marry threw herself in front of a Tube train at Euston station a year after she was diagnosed with depression.
Susan Goulden, 44, “impulsively” jumped in front of the northbound Victoria line train while “the balance of her mind was disturbed”, a coroner ruled at her inquest last week.
Ms Goulden, from Walthamstow, died at the National Hospital for Neurology in Queen’s Square on May 10, four days after the incident.
Giving evidence, her fiance, Duncan Strickland, told St Pancras Coroner’s Court Ms Goulden was unwell, but had still been working part-time as a solicitor.
He said: “She had been in a very paranoid state and was terrified that there was a conspiracy going on.”
No suicide note was found. However, Dr Andrew Reid recorded a verdict of suicide after hearing from witnesses on the platform who described Ms Goulden “diving” in front of the train as it pulled to a stop.
Russell Priest, a railway apprentice, said: “I was on my way home and at the furthest end of the platform the train pulled in.
“Out of the blue somebody emerged and hit the train – just out of nowhere. It was as if she dived out.”
Train driver Peter Kendal described seeing Ms Goulden walking “purposefully” alongside the driver’s cab.
He said: “She seemed to speed up and then took a lurch forward.”
Dr Reid said: “In those seconds [suicide] was her voluntary and deliberate intent.”

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