Durrington murder suspect killed himself

Gabriel Brown, 54, was found dead on January 18 at the Shelby Road flat he previously shared with long-term partner Lynn Warman.

Mr Brown wrote a note saying he didn’t kill his girlfriend before he slit his left wrist using a razor blade.

At his inquest at Arundel Town Hall yesterday (Wednesday), Martin Milward, deputy coroner for West Sussex, was told Mr Brown was arrested on suspicion of 37-year-old Lynn’s murder on December 30, 2009.

Mr Brown had kept his partner’s badly decomposing body on the couple’s sofa for more than 10 months.

A statement from his daughter, Emma Beeston, was read at the inquest.

It said: “My dad and Lynn had quite a volatile relationship and they were both heavy drinkers, smoked cigars and some cannabis.”

The statement said Miss Beeston felt something was “not right” with her father in November last year. She said he was worried he was going to be evicted from his flat because it was in Lynn’s name, and that he faced being sent to prison for benefit fraud because he had continued to claim benefits in his dead girlfriend’s name.

The following month, he admitted having kept Lynn’s body in the flat since she died.

In her statement, she said: “He was a broken man. He said he didn’t want her to be gone so he kept her body.”

Mr Brown was arrested after police found Lynn’s body, surrounded by air fresheners. He was questioned and released on bail.

On January 4, Mr Brown’s daughter and sister called the Heene Road Practice for an out-of-hours doctors appointment following concerns about his mental state.

Dr Ami Das told the inquest: “He was obviously quite disturbed and under the influence of alcohol, having consumed two bottles of spirits.

“He kept saying ‘I want to be with her’ and appeared very depressed, so I phoned Meadowfield psychiatric hospital but was told, as he was under the influence, an assessment was not possible.”

Dr Das phoned the police because Mr Brown was “clearly having suicidal thoughts”.

He was detained under the Mental Health Act and was assessed at Worthing Custody Centre.

Dr Das added: “He said he thought he had to clear his name and told me if he had any suicidal thoughts then he would have already killed himself.”

Final witness, Detective Inspector Rob Walker, said he was alerted to Mr Brown’s death by a colleague and briefed about the murder enquiry.

DI Walker said: “We found Mr Brown on the sofa with a slit left wrist and a pool of blood on the floor. Next to him, there was a note which said ‘I did not kill Lynn’. It was signed G Brown.”

Officers found blades from a plastic razor next to his body.

A post-mortem revealed Mr Brown’s cause of death was exsanguination.

Coroner Martin Milward recorded a verdict that Mr Brown killed himself.

He said: “We know Mr Brown had denied being responsible for his partner’s death, and was concerned about being evicted and facing prison.

“Considering everything that led up to his death, and the circumstances of his death, I am satisfied that, tragically, Mr Brown killed himself.”

An open verdict was recorded at Miss Warman’s inquest in May, as a post-mortem could not determine the cause of death because of the length of time she had been dead.