Depressed British Judge Jumps To Death From Flat

LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – A judge killed himself by jumping 50ft from his third-floor apartment because he was suffering from depression and anxiety – induced partly by drugs that were prescribed for his high blood pressure, an inquest was told yesterday.

Judge Rodney McKinnon, 64, of Pimlico, Central London, had suffered for some months from depression and anxiety, Westminster Coroner’s Court was told. His GP, Jonathan Hunt, told the inquest that anxieties about his health and his work, coupled with the side-effects of medication, had made Mr McKinnon depressed.

Recording a verdict of suicide, the coroner, Paul Knapman, said that there was no suicide note, but that possible scenarios such as the judge cleaning a window and losing his balance, or retrieving something from the ledge and losing his footing, were “fanciful”.

The judge’s brother, Warwick McKinnon, said he did not believe that his brother had intended to kill himself, and nor did any members of the family. He said that there was insufficient evidence to meet the required standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt”.

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