NELFT mental health team 'couldn't have stopped' Harold Hill death

Coroner Graeme Irvine said paramedics were confronted by a "horrifying" scene when they responded to a welfare call in Leamington Road, Harold Hill, on August 9, 2024.

Michael Moore, 60, was found in his home with severe injuries. Rigor mortis had already set in, meaning he had been dead for some time. He had lost around two litres of blood.

An inquest at East London Coroner’s Court on Wednesday, May 7, heard he had long expressed suicidal thoughts and made a prior attempt on his life.

He was under the care of North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) - Havering's mental health trust - but told staff he no longer wished to end his life.

The trust also covers Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest.

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In a statement, his cousin Karen Vickery wrote: “I feel that there was a lack of follow-up from the mental health team… Michael felt that he was not being taken seriously and eventually simply gave up asking for help.”

The court heard Mr Moore, at age 20 in 1984, suffered life-changing injuries in a serious motorbike accident.

After that, wrote Mrs Vickery, “Michael struggled with his mental health,” leading to two stays at Warley Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Brentwood, Essex.

His mental health worsened after further traumas, including the sudden death of his long-term partner one day after he proposed to her in 2000.

He suffered from anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), occasional psychosis and paranoia, the court was told.

"He believed that everyone was talking about him and he thought stories were being written about him on the internet.”

Once, when Mrs Vickery took him to a GP, he became “very distressed” and “didn’t believe the doctor was real and thought it was all a hoax".

After he tried to end his life in 2023, Mrs Vickery took him to Harold Hill's Petersfield Centre.

She described being “totally shocked by the attitude and confrontational behaviour” of staff, who refused to help because “they didn’t have a record of Michael and we hadn’t followed correct procedure”.

“Michael walked out, stating there was no point as no one was going to help him,” she wrote.

He was ultimately placed under NELFT’s home care team, but later “stepped down” to the community team.

Joe Jackson, head of service for NELFT’s Havering mental health and wellness teams, testified that Mr Moore – whose use of cannabis was thought to be linked to his psychosis – had been offered help from a drug and alcohol service, but did not take it up.

“There was nothing immediately prior to Mr Moore’s death that would have signalled or indicated that he was about to take this decision?” the coroner asked Mr Jackson, referring to Mr Moore's suicide.

“Sadly not,” said Mr Jackson.

Two cousins and two friends attended Mr Moore’s inquest.

One friend, Wendy Willard, told the coroner she had visited him shortly before his death and found him in a good mood, but then a strange incident seemed to upset him.

“Some fellow knocked on the door asking for him,” she said.

“He came to the door and his face completely changed from being happy, as he was, to completely being, just – I can’t explain… his face was like thunder. That’s the only way I can explain it.

“The guy just said to him, ‘I’m sorry, Michael, I haven’t got your money for you’. But he said, ‘I’ve got this for you’, and the guy gave him some stuff. Brown stuff. A lump of something. He said he would be in touch with him.”

She said the incident had been playing on her mind as it happened so shortly before Mr Moore took his life.

“I don’t think that it had a profound effect upon the outcome here,” said Mr Irvine.

“I think Mr Moore had an awful lot on his plate and it seems to me that the issues that had caused him to be upset and depressed go far beyond the events that you have described.”

Ruling the death a suicide, he said: “I am not convinced that there is any evidence before me to suggest that the mental health trust could have done anything reasonable to prevent this dreadful outcome.”

When life is difficult, the Samaritans is available 365 days, 24/7. Call for free on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, or visit www.samaritans.org.