Tragedy of pensioner's suicide revealed
Jan 31 2009 by Neil Mckay, The Journal
TORTURED by pain and tormented by guilt, death seemed the only option. Crippled since being injured on the last day of the war, and unable to look after his wife, Cuthbert Barr took his own life.
For 70 years he’d been in pain, and in despair at realising he couldn’t care properly for his beloved Molly, the 93-year-old ended his personal turmoil.
Trapped in a world he could not see a way out of, he got on his mobility scooter, rode a couple of miles to a nearby river, drove to the bank side, parked his scooter, and then walked into the water.
Passers-by who saw the retired civil servant in the River Wear at Chester-le-Street, County Durham, reported how he made no attempt to grab a lifebelt thrown in his direction.
The tragic events unfolded on the morning of October 22, 2007 that Mr Barr left his home in Kenilworth, Great Lumley, near Chester-le-Street and drove to the Riverside Park.
Witness Luke Garrett, 16, told an inquest at Bishop Auckland yesterday how he had seen the driver of a mobility scooter drive past railings, and then up a grassy embankment.
“I thought he just wanted to go for a walk by the riverbank,” he said.
Luke, who had been rowing on the river that morning, was on the phone to a friend when a passer-by ran up to him and said there was a body in the river.
“I dialled 999 and ran to the river. I saw the same scooter that I had seen earlier parked by the riverbank. I saw a man in the river, he seemed to be kicking but he looked semi-conscious. The man who came up to me earlier had thrown a lifebelt in his direction, and he was only a metre or two from the riverbank. But he made no attempt to grab the lifebelt.”
Deputy Durham coroner Brenda Davison returned a verdict that Mr Barr had intended to take his own life. After the hearing Mr Barr’s friend and neighbour Peter Linfoot told how the former soldier was in increasing pain following a war wound which had led to him having his left leg amputated.
“He had a prosthetic limb, and he had his mobility scooter to get around a little, but the wound was causing him a lot of pain. I don’t know where he was when he was wounded, but he was in the Army. He told me it happened on the last day of the war.
“He was very proud, and maybe he should have received more help. He looked after Molly, who had Alzheimer’s. My wife and I would take her shopping to give him a break, but I know he was finding things difficult.”
Mr Linfoot said Mrs Barr moved to New Zealand to live near her son after her husband’s death.
