| |
Man jumped from window of homeless hostel
A FORMER alcoholic plunged to his death from the window of a Maida Vale hostel, an inquest heard this week.
Unemployed Eddie Sumpter, 59, was found bloody, unconscious and barely breathing in an alleyway behind the St Mungo’s homeless shelter in Harrow Road by hostel staff in March this year.
Westminster Coroner’s Court heard on Wednesday how staff and paramedics had desperately tried to resuscitate Mr Sumpter, but to no avail.
The window of the second-floor room where Mr Sumpter had been staying was jammed wide open.
Mr Sumpter had been a resident at St Mungo’s for two years, in which time he had successfully kicked his alcohol dependency.
But he had been unable to shake feelings of depression and suicidal thoughts.
Buckland Flannery, a project worker at St Mungo’s, told the inquest Mr Sumpter had often spoken of suicide but had never believed himself “to have the nerve to carry it out”.
He said Mr Sumpter would go for long
periods without eating, his weight going down to as little as seven and a half stone.
Coroner Dr Paul Knapman ruled that Mr Sumpter had died of multiple head injuries and significant other injuries, having projected himself out of the window.
Verdict: suicide. |
| |
 |
|
| |
| |
