CONCERNS over tax drove a well-known Woodley man to take his own life earlier this year.
Robert Griffin, 54, of Jerome Road, died on Sunday, May 17 after being struck by a train a mile outside of Twyford Station.
An inquest held at Reading Town Hall on Tuesday heard coroner Peter Bedford describe the days leading up to Mr Griffin’s death, including worries about tax payments and panic attacks.
In a statement his parents, Ruth and Dennis Griffin, who were present at the inquest, told how Mr Griffin, who ran his own window cleaning business, ‘seemed concerned’ with his account books.
His girlfriend of 11 years, Janet Carpenter, told the inquest that Mr Griffin had suffered a panic attack the night before his death after she had tried to help him with his spreadsheets.
She said that Mr Griffin was convinced something was wrong despite everything being in order, but was panicking and told her he’d been having ‘awful thoughts’.
Mr Griffin spent the night at Miss Carpenter’s house, but had a restless night, being found crying on the bathroom floor by his girlfriend at 1am.
Mr Bedford went on to describe how Mr Griffin seemed to have recovered by the morning, going home to his parents’ house for breakfast and a shower, before returning to Miss Carpenter’s house to go over the books again.
The couple returned to his parents’ house for lunch until around 7pm, when Miss Carpenter left and Mr Griffin offered to take his nephew Jordan Alder home.
HIs nephew said Mr Griffin ‘seemed fine’ during the journey, before his uncle told him he was very proud of him and loved him.
At 7.23pm he called another nephew, Stuart Griffin, saying he ‘could not go on living this way’ and he ‘had everyone with him’. The family later discovered Mr Griffin had taken photos of his family from his room.
Stuart telephoned the family in Woodley to tell them about the call, before they reported Mr Griffin missing to police.
At 7.45pm police received a call that a man had been struck by a train at Waingels Copse, Woodley. The driver, Fawzi Mohammed, described seeing a person run in front of the train from his left side.
Mr Mohammed applied the brakes but heard a banging noise and knew he had hit the person. He called to the controller at Twyford who alerted the emergency services.
PC Mark Hennessey from Thames Valley Police said in a statement that Mr Griffin was still conscious when the police and ambulance arrived, telling them his name and date of birth. Mr Hennessey added Mr Griffin said: “I’m sorry guys, I didn’t mean to waste your time,” before suffering a cardiac arrest. The air ambulance attended to treat Mr Griffin but he died at the scene.
A post-mortem carried out by Dr Fawaz Musa, a pathologist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, found that Mr Griffin sustained injuries consistent with being struck by a train. A toxicology report showed no evidence of alcohol or drugs in his system, other than a dose of ketamine administered by the emergency services.
Mr Bedford concluded Mr Griffin had taken his own life while concerned about his business affairs.
Mr Griffin’s parents paid tribute to their son, saying: “He will never know how much he was loved. We have received 100 letters from his customers telling us how much they thought of him and how liked he was.
“I don’t think we’ll ever know what was going through his mind that day.”
