Express & Star

Father-to-be killed himself after told to evict new family's home

A father-to-be took his own life a day after he was given an eviction notice for the home he was decorating for his new family, an inquest into his death heard.

Published

Kieran Dickenson, aged 25, was found hanged by his partner Rebecca Forbes the morning after the pair had been out for a meal on November 16.

The hearing heard how Miss Forbes was expecting the couple's first child four weeks after his death and that he was planning to go Christmas shopping for his first child.

But she told Smethwick Coroner's Court that there were occasions when they hadn't kept up payments on their £600-a-month home in St John's Road, Oldbury.

Miss Forbes, who later gave birth to a baby girl, said: "He would come to the house and yell at Kieran through the window. He was abusive to him. The day before his death we got an eviction notice through the door

"There was arrangement in place where the landlord would provide the materials and Kieran would do up the house but he wasn't forthcoming with the materials."

Senior coroner for the Black Country Robin Balmain asked Miss Forbes why the couple had chosen the home.

She replied: "He thought the house had potential, it had a lovely garden and he thought he could do it up nice.

"His health was good he had times when he was down and times when he was really good. We went out the night before for a meal and he was okay. We spoke about the house and that we wouldn't worry about it anymore and that we would look for another house."

After the couple had been to the pub they bought a bottle of whisky from the off licence.

Miss Forbes had gone to bed and told the hearing she saw Mr Dickenson, a painter and decorator, come into their room around 4am to let their dogs out, he then told her he loved her.

It was to be later in the morning when she discovered the body of her partner.

Pc Andrew Lowbridge gave evidence in the hearing and arrived on the scene at around 7am.

He described the moments as he entered the house: "I helped the paramedic help Mr Dickenson down but it soon became apparent that he had died. I conducted a search of the property and there was a quantity of class A drugs. We saw how it was wrapped and we put two-and-two together what it was."

Mr Dickenson's mother Sharon Kasey said she had spoken to her son days before his death to arrange a payment plan for him and Miss Forbes.

She said: "He told me he loved Rebecca to pieces but didn't like the situation with their house.

"I was going to go up to him and go through things with his money management. He was having problems with his landlord but I was in the car on one occasion when he told him 'you have two options you tell us to leave or wait until we get benefits to pay you'."

Mr Balmain said the medical cause of death was asphyxia due to hanging. He concluded that Mr Dickenson hung himself while under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.