Suicide note left in hotel room

Press, 9 December 1989, Page 6

Suicide note left in hotel room

NZPA London A New Zealand man found dead at a luxury central London hotel had left a note to the hotel manager explaining that he was contemplating suicide and making arrangements to pay his bill, an inquest was told. But the Westminster Coroner, Mr Paul Knapman, said he believed that at the time of writing the note and other letters Mr Sidney Ronald Ward was “very drunk indeed” and unable to “form the intent to cause his own death.” He recorded an open verdict on Mr Ward, aged 57, a self-employed chartered surveyor of Lynfield, Auckland, who died from a combination of alcohol and diazepam (Valium) poisoning. Mr Ward was found dead in his room at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, London, on October 31. Constable Mark Drysdale told the inquest that when he entered the

room he found a briefcase containing letters addressed to various people. “One was addressed to the manager of the hotel explaining that he had contemplated suicide and in it he had made arrangements for,the payment of his hotel bill,” he said. Another letter was addressed to Alcoholics Anonymous and in a sports bag was an Alcoholics Anonymous handbook and an empty vodka bottle. A pathologist, Ms Vesna Djurovic, said Mr Ward, who had been in good health, had taken a large quantity of diazepam tablets and alcohol. The combination of these was extremely dangerous, causing severe respiratory depression — “in other words it would have been extremely difficult for him to have been able to breathe,” she said.