Thirty-nine year old John Byrne and his wife had a young son and were expecting twins at the time of his death. The Wentworth Golf Club greenkeeper drove his van into the Thames at Shepperton in Surrey in December 2016. He had been suffering from depression for two years
An inquest has heard that despite receiving three emergency calls to say a suicidal greenkeeper was intent on drowning himself by driving into the River Thames, police failed to respond in time.
Father-of-one John Byrne, 39, who worked at the prestigious Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey, drowned when he deliberately drove his van into the river at 8.20pm at Shepperton, two days after leaving hospital in December 2016.
That first call to police was made at 6pm but call handlers downgraded the message and ruled there was no need to respond.
A second 999 call was made at 8pm to tell police Mr Byrne had just told health workers he was planning to drown himself, and a third moments later from his wife to say he had disappeared and taken the van. Police graded both calls as requiring a one-hour response.
Mr Byrne, who was expecting twins with his wife within weeks, had previously considered killing himself by the same method and had even made preparations which would allow him to accelerate and launch the van into the fast-flowing river.
This afternoon at the inquest in Woking, assistant Surrey coroner Darren Stewart heard the call to the police was made by a concerned mental health worker.
Colleen Shelswell, a community support worker employed as part of the home treatment team for the local health authority, had called Surrey Police after receiving a disturbing phone call from Mr Byrne on December 8, the day he drove into the River Thames.
The jury heard that she called at 6pm and said: ‘At the moment we have a client who has been discharged from the ward.
‘We have been in contact with him since and everything has seemed fine but he called this afternoon at about 4.45pm. He has been drinking and said he was going to drive his van into the river.’
The coroner heard the call relating to Mr Byrne had been received by the police contact centre, where it was graded as a level two call, meaning it required a police officer to attend within the hour.
Gemma Hattrick, a contact centre performance manager, told the coroner that senior staff in the police control room disagreed about the urgency of the call and decided not to deploy officers, downgrading it to a level four call which meant the situation was considered resolved.
Police learned that Mr Byrne’s van was at his home address and he was at the Barley Mow pub in Shepperton, so sergeants decided he did not have the means to drive into the river at that time. But the Barley Mow is on the adjacent street to Mr Byrne’s home on Wood Road, just a five minute walk away.
Ian Bridge, the legal representative for Mr Byrne’s widow Cheri, asked Ms Hattrick: ‘Mr Byrne’s wife said the pub was just behind the house. In other words: he’s got his key’s with him, the van’s outside but close to where he’s drinking. Did anybody know that?’
Ms Hattrick confirmed the sergeants would have access to a map which would show the proximity of the pub to Mr Byrne’s home, and said police records flagged up Mr Byrne as a domestic abuse risk. The police were also aware Mrs Byrne was pregnant and the couple had a two-year-old son.
The jury heard that despite this, the case was handed back down to the ‘demand reduction team’. At the time this team sought to resolve cases via telephone to reduce pressure on police resources. It has since been disbanded.
Coroner Mr Stewart questioned: ‘So, it goes back to the demand reduction team, the system doesn’t even contemplate that someone will go within the hour. It will immediately change it from a grade two, to a grade four, so no-one will respond at all?’
He added: ‘I accept that the system now doesn’t exist but at the time can you see that being somewhat flawed, in terms of an assessment by your call operators being a response needed within an hour to no-one going at all?’
Ms Hattrick claimed: ‘Even though the system categorised it as a grade four, they [the demand reduction team] will have reviewed it as a grade three, which would require an officer to attend within 24 hours.’
Mr Stewart stressed that officers had not ‘applied their minds’ to whether it should properly have been a grade two call.
Later at 8pm, a member of Mr Byrne’s treatment team called 999 to say Mr Byrne had told he he was planning suicide.
Janna Craske, who was a call handler for Surrey Police in 2016 told the coroner: ‘I recall having a telephone call with somebody called Gemma from the Home Treatment Team who told me a member of the team had had a further telephone call from Mr Byrne where he sounded intoxicated and said he didn’t know where he was but that he wanted to jump into the River Thames in Shepperton.
‘Gemma said ‘he was threatening to do something stupid, his words not mine’, and said he had been telling lies to a lot of people and he may be telling lies to her as well.
Ms Craske heard that Mr Byrne had a 20-minute call with the Home Treatment Team starting at 7.30pm, and they had rung the police 10 minutes later.
She had given the call a grade two level, meaning it required a police response within an hour. A grade one level of call means someone is in danger right now and the police need to respond in two minutes.
Ms Craske told the inquest: ‘With a grade one, you need to know where that person is in order for us to elevate to a grade one because officers need to attend that immediately and we didn’t have an immediate location.’
She told the coroner that had the treatment team provided an exact location she would have made the incident a grade one.
Mr Byrne’s wife Cheri also called police at around 8pm, after the Home Treatment Team told her what her husband was talking of doing, the jury heard.
In a transcript of the call, they heard that Mrs Byrne said: ‘John came home at around 5.30pm. I had spoken to him previously because I had a call from the Home Treatment Team after he had contacted them and said he was thinking about jumping into the river.
‘His van is now gone. It was here but it is now gone since he came back – and he’s gone. I was putting my little boy to bed and now John’s gone and the van’s gone.’
The call handler also flagged that call as a grade two, requiring a one hour response.
Mr Byrne worked as a greenkeeper at the world-famous Wentworth golf course in Surrey
When the two-week inquest opened this morning the jury of seven men and four women were told they would hear evidence of the police response to the incident – including plans and preparations they made on the riverbank before entering the water, and while Mr Byrne was drowning in his sunken van.
Mr Byrne had been suffering with mental health issues but had told his heavily pregnant wife Cheri that he did not intend to harm himself.
Mr Byrne – known to friends as Jackie – had been a patient at The Priory private clinic as well as at St. Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, had been in contact with his mental health team on the day that he drowned in the river at Shepperton, Surrey.
The inquest heard Mr Byrne left his home on December 8, 2016 after a conversation with his wife who was due to give birth to their twins later that month.
He was seen crashing into the water 8.20pm and his van sank to the bottom while police planned and prepared on how to rescue him. His body was recovered from the vehicle and he was pronounced dead at the scene by ambulance staff at 9.46pm.
A consultant psychiatrist with the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Anand Mathilakath, told the inquest Mr Byrne had previously tried to drive his car into the Thames.
He said Mr Byrne had been taken to hospital by police on October 30, 2016 from a local pub after concerns that he had left home saying ‘I do not deserve to be around.’
Officers took him to an A&E department, where he agreed to go into care for mental health issues. Dr Mathilakath told the jury if Mr Byrne had not agreed to be admitted, he would have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
He first went into The Priory and then was transferred to St Peter’s Hospital on November 11 2016.
Dr Mathilakath said: ‘Information was taken from John on the 30th when he attended hospital.
‘He said he had been reported missing two days before. He had told his wife he was going to work but he was not, he was staying in his van. He would go home at night and sleep.’
The psychiatrist told the inquest that in mid-October Mr Byrne had told his wife he had tried to drive into the Thames.
‘He had planned it and found a spot where it would be easy to drive up at speed and fly into the river,’ Dr Mathilakath said.
‘He had positioned wooden ramps to make it easier to drive off the road and had made several attempts. He said however, that he didn’t have the courage to carry it out.’
The doctor added: ‘So when he left the family home on the morning of October 30 and said ‘I do not deserve to be around’ his wife had called the police but he insisted that when he left he said he did not intend to end his life.’
Dr Mathilakath said Mr Byrne had been diagnosed with severe depression with suicidal ideation and intent, complicated by gambling and harmful alcohol use.
The inquest heard he had depleted the family savings and was £5,000 in debt and was drinking between four and six pints every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Assistant coroner Mr Stewart told the jury that on December 8 the 39-year-old ‘drove to a place on the Thames and, after a period of time there, drove his van into the river adding that ‘the van sank to the bottom of the river’
He went on: ‘Mr Byrne had been married for about 12 years and had a young son. His wife was pregnant with twins.
‘He had been suffering from depression and anxiety for about two years and received care from mental health services, primarily the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
‘He had been discharged from a period of hospitalisation on December 6 and had been in contact with the at-home treatment team up until the day of his death, which included home visits and telephone contact.
‘Mr Byrne had been in contact with the treatment team on the day of his death and the home treatment team made efforts to contact Surrey Police with concerns over his welfare,’ the jury heard.
‘You will hear that Mr Byrne spent a period at a local pub and then walked a short distance home from that pub. At that time he had a conversation with his with his wife and collected keys to a van.’
The inquest has been adjourned until tomorrow when police who went to the scene are expected to give evidence.
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