Sponsored by
Heroin addict dad hanged by dog lead
A MAN who used to shock his girlfriend by pretending to hang himself with a sheet from the bannister died after hanging himself for real at his Dinnington home, an inquest heard.
Darren Tunstill, 28, was discovered by one of his children and his partner Corrina Bradshaw on 24th September 2009.
But despite attempts to revive the recycling plant worker, he died in Rotherham General Hospital two days later.
Miss Bradshaw, his partner of 10 years, told the inquest in Rotherham, that she and the heroin addict father-of-four, had been living apart for several days each week after she discovered he was having an affair.
She said that he had made threats to kill himself before.
"He threatened to self harm a lot. He used to use it as a way of getting me to give him money for heroin to serve his habit," she said.
When she started living part of the week with her mother, he would send her texts threatening to kill himself.
"I would get a text saying he was going to kill himself. When I got home he would be on the stairs with a sheet round his neck like a noose attached to a bannister. He would take it off and say 'sorry'," said Corrina.
The inquest was told that Mr Tunstill had recently received a letter to say he was due to go to hospital to start a detox programme.
On the day of his death, Corrina said the couple and their children had been at her brother's house.
She added: "All day he had been in and out with the kids and he took them to a birthday party."
Mr Tunstill left before Corrina to go back to their home in Victoria Street, when he sent her a text which ended "I don't want to lose you."
When Corrina and the children returned to the house around 40 minutes later they discovered Mr Tunstill hanging from the bannister by a dog lead.
Toxicology tests found he had taken a potentially fatal dose of heroin.
The cause of death was given as hypoxia due to hanging and heroin injection.
Recording an open verdict, deputy coroner Fred Curtis said there was a reasonable doubt over whether Mr Tunstill did intend to kill himself.
He said: "He had made many threats before which had never been carried out."
"Heroin affects the mental state and if he had taken as much heroin as he clearly had on this occasion, one wonders whether he was capable of forming a proper intention."
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Dinnington
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Fog
Temperature: -6 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -4 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
