Solicitor took his life over financial worries

10:05am Wednesday 20th August 2008

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A SOLICITOR who bottled-up worries about his personal and professional finances was found dead in the kitchen of a Worcester firm while an investigation into his accounts was taking place.

Nicholas Tidball, a specialist in personal injury claims, had kept his debts from family, friends and work colleagues right up until he decided to kill himself using a plastic bag connected to a large cylinder of helium.

Worcestershire coroner Geraint Williams said a woman from the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) had been looking at the accounts of Abbotts Solicitors in St John’s, Worcester, of which 41-year-old Mr Tidball was a partner, when she found his body about 5pm on Wednesday, May 14.

At the county coroner’s court in Stourport-on-Severn yesterday Mr Williams said: “The nature of the investigation caused him concern and anxiety in the days leading up to his death.

“It’s the measure of the man, I think, that he kept it from his family because he didn’t wish to cause them any distress or upset.

“But it was preying increasingly upon his mind and came to a point when he decided to investigate taking his own life.”

The inquest heard that Mr Tidball, who had also received letters from creditors about his personal finances, hired a large helium gas cylinder on Monday, May 12, following research on a website which detailed ways to take a life.

Mr Williams said the SRA investigation began the following day and Mr Tidball, of Laugherne Road, St John’s, seemed to carry on with his life as normal.

“The investigator had been there all day on the Tuesday and there again on the Wednesday,” said Mr Williams.

“That lady made a statement to my officers indicating that Mr Tidball had become increasingly distressed as a result of her investigation.”

Mr Williams said the investigator had not seen Mr Tidball in the office for about two hours when she made the grim discovery about 5pm. “That caused her enormous distress,” he said.

Mr Williams said that the woman ran next door and called the emergency services while two men tried to resuscitate Mr Tidball before paramedics arrived and pronounced him dead at the scene.

Mr Williams said two notes were left in Mr Tidball’s car for his wife and son.

A post mortem examination found the cause of death to be helium inhalation and Mr Williams recorded a verdict of suicide.