SULLIVAN: BUILDER GASSED HIMSELF WITH HELIUM

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19 August 2011

helium…1

A construction worker committed suicide after battling with drugs and mental health problems, an inquest heard today (Fri).

Michael Sullivan, 25, tied a plastic bag to his head and injected helium from a gas cannister after leaving a note saying ‘goodbye’ to his family, Southwark Coroner’s Court heard.

The inquest heard that he suffered from adjustment disorder, a stress-related condition, and had previously been admitted to a psychiatric hospital after taking two drug overdoses in 2009.

He had previously told mental health workers that he was a cocaine-user and had taken steroids for two years while he was bodybuilding.

His father, John Sullivan, who worked with Michael in his building firm, said he had seen his son just days prior to his death.

‘He was fine,’ he said.

‘We went on holiday and he phoned his mother and said he was having a lovely time, etc, etc.

‘He had just moved into the flat, and he seemed very happy.

‘We loved him very much.’

Emergency services were called to his flat in (72) Marlowe Gardens, Eltham, southeast London, at around 3pm on March 28 after worried co-workers said he had not turned up for work for a week.

After breaking down the door, police found his badly-decomposed body slumped over his bed.

A post-mortem report concluded that the cause of death was asphyxiation, while a blood analysis found alcohol at slightly above the drink-drive level.

His sister, Danielle Sullivan, said she was sure he had meant to kill himself and had not been making a ‘cry for help’.

She said: ‘With what Michael wrote in the note, he was a man of black and white words, and to write what he wrote… He expressed it was his intention.’

Passing a verdict of suicide, Assistant Deputy Coroner Sarah Ormond-Walshe said Michael’s death was a ‘very, very sad case.’

‘This gentleman was only 25 when he died and he had a supportive family and a full-time job working with his father,’ she said.

‘He clearly had a loving family.

‘He was up and down, and his family never quite knew what mood he would be in when they spoke to him.

‘He was known to suffer from some mental health problems, and my conclusion as to his death is he took his own life.’

Verdict: suicide

ends