Daisy Boyd with her fiancé Dan Macmillan at their engagement party in London in 2016
A socialite spoke of her desire to commit suicide in a therapy session days before she killed herself in a private psychiatric hospital ward, an inquest heard today.
Daisy Boyd, 28, was found leaning against her bathroom door at 7.30am on October 5 last year at the Nightingale Hospital in Marylebone, central London.
She had suffocated herself with a plastic bag and hospital staff and paramedics were unable to revive her.
A bag containing cocaine along with rolled up notes and unauthorised tranquillisers were found in her room.
Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe told the court a post-mortem ‘found 1.85mg of cocaine in her blood’ which was a ‘potentially toxic amount’.
Miss Boyd had expressed a desire to commit suicide in a therapy session on September 26 but was not put on 24-hour observation, Westminster Coroner’s Court heard.
The report stated she was ‘highly suicidal’ but her observations were upped to an hour.
Her mother Lucy Boyd questioned why these threats were ignored or not dealt with.
She said: ‘The (therapist) report appeared to give the impression the risk as being significantly higher than risk perceived on the ward and by her consultant.’
Miss Boyd with her father, leading architect Tim Boyd, at the engagement party in 2016
Mrs Boyd rang Miss Boyd’s psychiatrist, Dr Frankie Connell, on October 4 to express concern about cocaine on the hospital ward.
She said other patients ‘assumed her death was due to a drug overdose.’
‘She had a large bag of coke a few days before and was showing it off to other patients saying ‘look what I’ve got, look what I’ve got.’
Miss Boyd checked into the hospital as an ‘informal patient’ last year – and a visitor, who signed in as ‘AR’, dropped a bag of cocaine in reception.
Miss Boyd had faced struggles with depression in addition to a cocaine addiction
Miss Boyd struck up a romantic relationship with a patient – but he and others were too frightened to give evidence about the unidentified visitor, the court was told previously.
Daisy Boyd and Dan Macmillan: Architect’s daughter and heir to a publishing fortune
Daisy Boyd and Dan Macmillan, in 2016
Daisy Boyd, 28, was engaged to Dan Macmillan, 43, for three years before he broke it off in July 2017.
The grand-daughter of the late River Café co-owner Rose Gray and daughter of leading architect Tim Boyd was due to be married to Mr Macmillan, heir to a £300 million publishing fortune.
Mr Macmillan, once dubbed the Vulgar Viscount, was the great-grandson of Tory PM Harold Macmillan.
They had a stylish engagement party at the River Cafe – where her stepfather Charles Pullan, married to her mother Lucy, is manager.
Heir to the Macmillan family’s £300 million fortune, Mr Macmillan was also formerly engaged to Ukrainian model Sasha Volkova, but split from her in late 2011.
Formally, he is Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden, a courtesy title as he is heir to the Earldom of Stockton.
His father, Tory peer Alexander, the 2nd Earl, sold the Macmillan publishing house to a German firm in the 1990s.
Miss Boyd was a former pupil of £36,000-a-year Woldingham, a Roman Catholic boarding school in Surrey.
In the past Old Etonian Mr Macmillan has been romantically linked to models Kate Moss and Jade Jagger, who ended their friendship after finding he was dating them simultaneously.
A statement, written by the family, read out to the court by Dr Radcliffe, detailed Miss Boyd’s struggles with depression and cocaine addiction.
It said that Miss Boyd attempted suicide in September 2013 by overdosing on paracetamol tablets after the ‘breakdown of a relationship from a man who was physically and emotionally abusive.’
She was referred to the Nightingale Hospital for the first time on September 26. 2013.
Miss Boyd denied having suicidal thoughts and was eventually discharged in November that year, the court heard.
She began a ‘serious relationship’ with her fiancé – publishing heir Dan Macmillan – in August 2014 and he was financially supporting her.
‘Her boyfriend was a drug user and moved in circles where excessive drug use was the norm,’ it claimed. ‘She was in love and the relationship appeared to be a good one.’
The pair were engaged in the summer of 2016 but the relationship became increasingly ‘fractious.’
The statement went on to claim that he was a ‘long-term cocaine user and he became extremely violent towards her and threatened her with a knife of one occasion’.
It added: ‘On October 7, 2016, following a violent row, Daisy came home to find the locks had been changed.’
She was left ‘extremely distressed’ and asked to be checked into the Nightingale Hospital.
Miss Boyd was again discharged and began a relationship with a 61-year-old married Egyptian man who also used cocaine, the court heard.
On September 16, her lover called her mother and said she had attempted suicide after taking a quantity of Xanax.
Miss Boyd planned to suffocate herself on that occasion but passed out before she could, the court heard.
Miss Boyd was found leaning against her bathroom door at the Nightingale Hospital in Marylebone, central London
She was placed on suicide watch but that was downgraded to 30 and 15 minute observations as she appeared to improve.
But Miss Boyd didn’t stop using cocaine. On September 22, Miss Boyd handed in a bag of cocaine to staff that was in her bag, the court heard.
A razor blade and ropes were also found in her room on September 25.
On October 4 she told her father he didn’t ‘need to visit tomorrow as she was busy,’ and she was found dead the next morning. The inquest continues.
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