A WIDOWER took his own life seven months after the sudden death of his wife, an inquest heard.

Heartbroken Brian Loosemore, 55, struggled to cope with the grief of his loss after his long term partner Lynette suffered a sudden heart attack following a brief illness.

The coroner heard he was voluntarily sectioned in a mental health unit after talking about how he wanted to end his life to be with his wife by jumping off a bridge.

Despite making an improvement following support from his family and health care professionals, Mr Loosemore chose to end his suffering when he jumped from a bridge over the M5 between junctions 26 at Wellington and 27 at Tiverton on May 2 last year.

Two days prior the father-of-five, from Tiverton, had paid for his own funeral, and had written suicide notes for his loved ones.

His sister, Sheila Hill, told in a statement how Mrs Loosemore died on October 2, 2017, and her brother had talked of wanting to 'kill himself', and how he felt 'dead inside' and 'my heart is breaking'.

After making serious threats in December he was sectioned and pledged to his family he would not make any suicide attempts.

The last time she saw him alive was a few days before his death.

She said: "There were no suspicions anything was wrong."

Mrs Hill added: "We're shocked he did it that way. We thought he would have taken pills. It must have been so bad, worse than we thought. He hid it so well."

An eyewitness who had been travelling southbound along the M5 at around 9am when Mr Loosemore fell from the bridge recalled in a statement how she had not seen anyone on the bridge but as she was about to go under it she saw something fall from it out of the corner of her eye.

Evidence was also heard from his GP, Dr Jane Phillips, who told how he had a depressive episode in 2000, but had remained in good health until the death of his wife.

She added that by January 2018, he felt he had moved on to the next stage grief, but the next month she referred him to the local mental health crisis team after becoming concerned he was 'not his usual self', and he was diagnosed with bereavement reaction.

When she last saw him in March she described how he was feeling good, positive and was sleeping better.

Mental health reports revealed how Mr Loosemore held strong beliefs he would die naturally due to a broken heart, and clearly struggled with his wife's death.

Recording a conclusion of suicide, coroner Philip Spinney said: "I am satisfied Mr Loosemore took his own life. It is more likely than not he jumped from the motorway bridge and intended to end his life on that day."

Have been affected by this article?

  • Samaritans - https://secure.thebiggive.org.uk/charity/view/10358/the-samaritans-of-taunton-and-somerset
  • Cruse Bereavement care - https://www.cruse.org.uk/
  • Mindline - http://mindtws.org.uk/our-services/mindline-htm/
  • papyrus - https://www.papyrus-uk.org/about/our-campaigns/save-the-class-of-2018
  • kooth - https://kooth.com/
  • In Charley’s Memory - http://www.incharleysmemory.org.uk/
  • MindTWS - 01823 334906, 0300 330 5463, bereaved@mindtws.org.uk