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Family dispute claim that father took own life in window plunge
Coroner rules apparent suicide note ‘not equivocal’
AN elderly carpenter may have fallen out of a fourth floor window as he tried to clean it, an inquest heard on Tuesday.
In July Edward Thornton, 87, was found unconscious on the gravelled floor outside Jersey House in Clifton Road at around 7am by neighbours.
Mr Thornton, a widower to Elizabeth Walker Thornton, was still moving and making sounds when he was first found. But despite being rushed to hospital the retired carpenter never regained consciousness.
He was pronounced dead later that day.
A post mortem found Mr Thornton had died from multiple severe injuries and, in particular, chest damage.
At St Pancras Coroner’s Court police reports revealed there had been a step ladder pulled up to the window, which could have indicated Mr Thornton was cleaning the windows – but there were also signs of an apparent suicide note that had been torn up and put away.
Mr Thornton’s son Terrence denied his father committed suicide, instead suggesting he was in the middle of putting the rubbish out – there were tied up bags on top of the fridge – when he was distracted by the doorbell and went to the window to see who it was.
The court also heard Mr Thornton was a regular window cleaner and was systematic in his cleanliness of his tower block council home.
Mr Thornton’s son, who was close to his father and would drive a black cab several times a week so he could stay over in London to be with him, said: “I think my dad [had] gone out to look down to see who was at the door – because he wouldn’t have let just anyone in – and he fell out.”
Mr Thornton, an electrician, said his father was a “stickler” for notes and would have made sure to leave him one had he wished to end his life.
He also said his father’s mother had taken her life by jumping to her death and he wouldn’t have repeated that.
However, Mr Thornton’s evidence was disputed somewhat by police testimony that they had found a suicide note in the flat, ripped up.
Coroner Dr Andrew Reid pulled the scraps out of the envelope during the hearing and pieced them together, but decided that the words were “not unequivocal” and ruled out suicide.
“The court must be sure Edward Thornton acted in self harm and it was his intention to end his own life,” said Dr Reid.
“There are no eye witnesses and on the evidence available it’s not possible to say it was his intention to end his own life.”
He recorded an open verdict. |
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