Inquest: Ballymena man hanged himself in grounds of hospital

The hearing last Tuesday into the death of Samuel Rea, from Parkmore Drive in Ballymena, was told how his mental state had declined dramatically from Christmas 2008 to January 20, 2009, when he voluntarily entered Holywell psychiatric hospital looking for help.

After hearing several hours of evidence, coroner Brian Sherrard adjourned the inquest, which had been sitting in Ballymena, to get “greater clarity” and witness statements from staff on what time Mr Rea had been known to be absent from the ward.

The Rea family said that Mr Rea “was not himself, not the man we knew and should not have been left alone”.

The coroner also asked for a timeline of the events leading up to his death. Mr Rea was found dead by staff members around 3pm. He had hanged himself in the grounds of the hospital.

During the inquest the coroner heard how Mr Rea’s overriding fear was that he and his family would lose their home because of the amount of debt they had incurred.

His daughter Angela Rea, 30, said their family home had been paid off for many years and while her father was not in debt, he refused to believe them.

“Daddy used to be really outgoing and loved people,” she said. “Then those Christmas holidays he didn’t seem to want to go out anywhere.”

Angela said she had finally persuaded her father, who had been talking about committing suicide, to see a doctor on January 19.

She said she, her mother Sally and 28-year-old brother Nigel saw him in hospital every day.

“We did not think he had made any recovery in Holywell Hospital,” she said.

Angela said her father was home on the Sunday before he died. She said during the visit he said to a family member, “this is the last time I will sit in this chair”.

“When he was home that weekend we never let him out of our sight for one minute,” she said.

Staff nurse Deirdre Convery – who had responsibility for Mr Rea on the day he took his own life – said when he initially came into Holywell he was “agitated and restless”.

She said on April 8 Mr Rea’s absence from the ward was noticed by a member of staff when he was not present for his dinner before noon. She said that after a search of the wards and grounds his family and the PSNI were called.

She said from the moment he was known to be missing staff continually searched as his absence was “out of character”.

Mrs Convery said police searched the grounds and found nothing, however a subsequent search by her and two others found his body.

She said she has since learned that a member of staff saw him leaving the ward at 11.50am, although they had not made a statement to the police.

Mrs Convery said after Mr Rea’s death an audit had been carried out so that staff had to monitor patients on a 30 minute basis.

Dr Richard Anderson, the designated consultant responsible for Mr Rea, said he had prescribed anti depressants and anti psychotic drugs for him when he came on to the ward as he was suffering from a severe depressive illness and delusions.

He said in the later stages of Mr Rea’s admission, he said he was not feeling suicidal as, “what is the point and it would solve nothing”.

At a staff meeting the day before he committed suicide, Mr Rea was said to have been showing “sustained improvement”.

Dr Anderson added he was later surprised to find out that Mr Rea had taken his own life.