MYSTERY still surrounds the identity of an unidentified ‘doctor’ who attended the home of a man later found dead following his inquest.
Last month, the inquest on Chris Thorpe, 56, from Birdwell Common, Birdwell, was delayed after new evidence was introduced part-way through proceedings.
Mr Thorpe’s friend and neighbour Adrian Kilbride, who had been attending the inquest as an observer rather than a witness, shouted from the public gallery details about the state of his friend’s mental health which coroner Chris Dorries had not previously been made aware of.
After he was sworn in as a witness, Mr Kilbride said he had seen an out-of-hours doctor outside Mr Thorpe’s house in the early morning the day before his friend was discovered dead, in woods near Pilley on January 9.
He also said Mr Thorpe had attended Barnsley Hospital on the day before his death and made phone calls and left messages with the mental health team which had allegedly gone unanswered.
Mr Dorries adjourned the inquest saying he needed to establish whether there was a ‘hole’ in the systems which are in place to support vulnerable people with mental health issues.
But at the inquest’s conclusion this week, no further answers could be given about who the man Mr Kilbride had seen outside his friend’s home was.
Despite the efforts of the coroner’s officer, enquiries with Mr Thorpe’s GP, the NHS 111 service, Barnsley Hospital and out-of-hours doctor provider Care UK proved fruitless. None of the services had records showing Mr Thorpe having contacted them or requested a doctor in the days before his death.
Mr Kilbride gave evidence again and said: “My wife phoned me and said Chris had been round and said he was going to the hospital.
“I told my wife what I told you after last time, and she said ‘yes he did say that, but did he go - who would have taken him?’
“Chris was one of those people who wouldn’t have got on a bus, and if there was a full waiting room at the hospital he wouldn’t have stayed.
“But without a shadow of a doubt somebody was there at his home that morning and they said Chris was fine and they had given him something.”
Mr Dorries said: “I am absolutely not challenging what you said to me. I know when I am being told nonsense and fact and I don’t doubt that your evidence was the latter.
“But all calls to organisations such as Care UK are computerised and they can’t find them on the system. It just is mind boggling.
“Wherever this person came from, it doesn’t appear to be any organisation we have searched.”
Mr Kilbride presented Mr Thorpe’s mobile phone to the court so his call records could be examined. But after a brief adjournment to investigate the nature of one number, which Mr Thorpe called ten times the day before he was discovered dead, it turned out to be his answering machine service.
Addressing his parents Mr Dorries said: “I could not sensibly come to any other conclusion than your son had taken his own life.
“I thought we were going to have such a different answer. I would like to offer my condolences.”
Speaking after the inquest, Mr Kilbride said: “It is not a witch hunt, but I am just stating what happened. Somebody had to have phoned someone for that doctor to have been there.”
Mr Thorpe’s mother Barbara said: “It is just strange it not having been recorded, where he came from. Adrian was his best mate, he could be trusted with this. It is a mystery.”
