Car debt led to OAP’s suicide

A PENSIONER from Rustington had amassed a £40,000 debt before his death, after purchasing a new car for a man he believed was his “soul mate”, an inquest heard

Brian Denham, 71, of The Grangeway, killed himself after getting into financial difficulties following his decision to finance a new Mercedes-Benz for unemployed Lancing man John Brown, an inquest at Worthing Town Hall was told, on Monday (January 9).

Mr Denham was discovered dead in the bed of his Rustington home, in September, by Mr Brown, when he visited the 70-year-old’s flat, after returning from a family trip to Benidorm, in Spain.

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Detective Sergeant Chris Leech, of West Sussex CID said that officers arriving at Mr Denham’s flat discovered a “substantial amount of blood” in the bed and the bathroom and a scalpel was found in the property with blood on it.

However, he felt there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.

Giving evidence during the inquest, Mr Denham’s niece, Sarah Denham Lewis, 46, said: “Anyone that knows him will say that he had depressive moods, but I would never think him suicidal.

“He phoned up and told us he had met somebody and that it was the love of his life.

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“There’s no doubt in my mind that he thought he was in a relationship. We believed he was in a relationship with Mr Brown.”

In his evidence, Mr Brown, of Withy Patch, denied he was in any sort of sexual relationship with Mr Denham, claiming that they had been just “good friends”.

He admitted that they used to see and text each other on a daily basis, for almost a year.

Mr Brown said: “I just thought we were really good friends. I never suggested that we should do anything. He used to tell me that he really liked me. He never suggested anything else to me.

“We just enjoyed each other’s company.

“We both liked going to the bar and watching the racing.”

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Mrs Denham Lewis said Mr Denham had changed his will, days before his death, to include Mr Brown.

She added that the new will stated that, in the event of his death, his estate would be used to pay off the £40,000 car debt for Mr Brown.

Mr Brown said he was unaware of Mr Denham’s will change.

Elaine O’Reilly, manager of the Lamb Inn, in The Street, said she was one of those Mr Denham trusted to witness the change.

She said that if she had known Mr Denham had made any major changes to the will, she would have refused to allow it to go ahead.

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Speaking of his death, she said: “It must have been something so catastrophic, he must have been hurt in such a foul manner, he felt he would have never been able to see us again.

“It was like a bombshell hit the pub. Brian had a lot of friends.”

A post-mortem, conducted at Worthing Hospital, showed that Mr Denham had four incisions to his left arm, one which had cut through a vein. This was deemed to be the cause of death.

A statement read out during the inquest, on behalf of pathologist Mark Appleton – who conducted the examination – said that there was no evidence of a struggle or any other defensive wounds and that the cut through the vein would have caused substantial blood loss.

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Assistant deputy coroner for West Sussex, Michael Kendall, recorded a verdict that Mr Denham took his own life.

He said: “The difficulty in this case is that there is no obvious evidence whether Mr Denham intended to end his life.

“Nevertheless, in the view of the evidence of the police and the doctor who carried out the post-mortem, it does seem clear to me, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the deceased intended to take his life.”