A municipal support worker who ‘really loved helping people’ has killed himself after being suspended from his job, a investigation understood.
Darren Hindley’s body was found in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal earlier this year and just hours after he went missing at his mother’s home. The 54-year-old ‘worker’ was suspended from duty about 10 days before his death for charges against him which were not detailed at the hearing.
A coroner’s court heard how Mr Hindley was found in the Leigh branch of the canal on the evening of January 18. His mother Yvonne said he suffered from depression and mentioned his father leaving when Darren was 18 as a potential trigger.
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She said, “It really hurt him.” Ms Hindley also told the hearing that Darren’s first wife had died and his second marriage had broken down, the MEN Reports.
She admitted: “He could have been a lot happier.” At the time of his death Darren was working for Wigan Council as a support worker and Ms Hindley said he ‘really enjoyed helping people’ but was ‘working too many hours’.
“He was always a hard worker. He wasn’t lazy at all,” she added. “He didn’t have a lot of free time. I was telling him he was working too many hours.”
Mrs. Hindley had stayed at a friend’s house while Darren stayed at her house and the last time she spoke to Darren was on the morning of his death. Speaking of their last phone conversation, she said: “I asked if he was okay and he just said ‘I’m tired mum, I’m so tired’.
“He sounded like he had the world on his shoulders.”
Darren’s partner of 11 years, Elisa Hari, told the inquest Bolton Coroner’s Court that he was suspended from duty approximately 10 days before his death for charges against him which were not detailed during the hearing. She said, “The weekend before [his death] he was very distressed because work told him they would let him know on Friday about the investigation, but he didn’t get a call, so he spiralled between Friday and Sunday.
“He found it very difficult to think about anything else. He wasn’t sleeping, he wasn’t eating, he was pacing, he couldn’t strike up a normal conversation.”
In a statement, service manager Victoria Lowe confirmed that Wigan Council had informed Darren of an investigation and said the council had provided him with a link for help. On January 11, Darren was prescribed antidepressants after telling a GP out of hours that he was having trouble at work and suffered from insomnia.
Ms Hari said he tried to take the drug every night before bed. The inquest heard that Darren split his time between his mother’s house and Mrs Hari’s.
Ms Hari said on January 16 he said he would stay with his mother, but she feared he was not in the right mental state to drive and persuaded him to leave the next morning. On the morning of January 17, Ms. Hari asked Darren if he had any suicidal thoughts before leaving for his mother.
She told the inquest: ‘I had never asked him before but he looked so terrible and because of my job I recognized that was how he presented himself.
You don’t have to suffer in silence if you have mental health issues.
Here are some groups you can contact:
Samaritans: Telephone 116 123, 24 hours a day, or email [email protected], confidentially.
Child line: Phone 0800 1111. Calls are free and will not appear on your bill.
PAPYRUS: A voluntary organization that supports suicidal teenagers and young adults. Telephone 0800 068 4141.
Depression Alliance: Charitable association for people suffering from depression. No helpline, but it has helpful resources and links to further information.
Students Against Depression: A website for depressed, moody or suicidal students. Click here to visit.
Bullying in the UK: A website for children and adults affected by bullying. Click here.
Campaign Against Living Miserable (CALM): For young men who feel unhappy. There is a helpline: 0800 58 58 58 or visit the website.
After reassuring Ms. Hari that he was not suicidal, Darren went to his mother’s house. That evening, he phoned Ms. Hari after receiving a text from work.
“He read it to me and I took it to mean they hadn’t started the investigation yet. I think it was overwhelming for him.
“I called him back later but there was no response. I was worried so the next morning (January 18) I texted again but there was no response and then I tried to call him at lunch but his phone was off.”
Mrs. Hari contacted Darren’s best friend of 40 years, Paul Wilkinson, who lived near Darren’s mother, and asked him to watch Darren.
“I thought it was unusual because I saw him the next day and didn’t think there was a problem,” Mr Wilkinson said. “I went to check on him to make sure he was okay and there was a police van outside the house.
“They asked me a few things and told me his car had been found in Leigh. Then the officer said ‘maybe you’d better go home’.
“I went to where his car was and there was no sign of Darren. Then I went to see Pennington Flash, went back to his car and there were a lot more police.
“When they saw me they seemed to stop what they were doing. I went back to some female police officers I had spoken to before and they told me to go home.
“I did but at 6am the next morning I went back to look for Darren and spoke to Elisa around 8am to say I couldn’t find him. Around 3pm she let me know they found Darren.”
Police Coroner’s Officer Julieann Hyde told the court that a bag belonging to Darren was found around 11pm on January 18. His body was discovered around 11:30 p.m.
A number of suicide notes addressed to friends and family were also found in Darren’s car. “It showed clear planning and intent,” Ms Hyde told the court.
Following an autopsy, pathologist Dr Stephen Wells recorded “drowning” as the medical cause of Darren’s death. A toxicology report showed he also had alcohol and cannabis in his system, but these were not recorded as contributing factors.
Manchester West Deputy Coroner Stephen Teasdale said Darren had been “unhappy” and “struggling to cope” before his death. He came to the conclusion of suicide.
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