Tatler Tory victim rowed with his parents about being gay
THE young Conservative activist whose suicide sparked the Tatler Tory bullying scandal had battled with depression for years, an official police report has concluded.
Elliott Johnson, 21, tried to kill himself three times when he was 18, and had found it difficult that his parents struggled to accept his homosexuality, detectives found.
He killed himself on a railway line in September, leaving a suicide note accusing senior election aide Mark Clarke, 38, of bullying him.
Only eight minutes before he got off the train on his last journey, his telephone rang. It was his mother, but he never took the call, the police document records.
The scandal over Mr Johnson’s death rocked Tory HQ, and Mr Clarke – once tipped as a future minister by Tatler magazine – was kicked out of the party.
But a devastating British Transport Police report prepared for Mr Johnson’s inquest, which opens next week, has shed light on his fragile mental state.
The eight-page dossier, seen by the Daily Mail, describes how the young activist battled depression after coming out as gay in September 2010.
Mr Johnson was part of Road Trip 2015, which bussed young Tory activists into marginal seats in the run-up to last year’s election. Mr Clarke ran the operation, which was beset by allegations of bullying, sexual high jinks and drug taking.
The police report is critical of the Conservative Party, saying: ‘The death of Elliot has highlighted a number of potential administrative failures and potential criminal matters taking place at Conservative Road Trip events.’
In one of three suicide notes, Mr Johnson said his parents Ray and Alison, from Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, had struggled with his sexuality.
He was also tormented by guilt over the fact he would not give them grandchildren, which the police report says was a ‘contributory factor’ in his suicide.
Mr Johnson’s first suicide attempt was in spring 2011, when he threw himself in the River Nene at Wisbech. The current took him to a ladder where he got out, the document reveals.
The teenager visited his local GP with his parents, and the report describes ‘the difficulties he was having at his parents’ non-acceptance of his sexuality’. In May 2011, having lost a boyfriend in a car accident a few weeks earlier, he ate poisonous leaves in his bedroom, believing he had taken enough to kill himself.
In November he made another suicide attempt while at a club for a friend’s birthday.
Mr Johnson rallied and went to Nottingham University, where he studied history. He joined Road Trip and was recruited by the pressure group Conservative Way Forward (CWF) after graduating.
In August he had a heated row with Mark Clarke in a Westminster pub and made a formal complaint of bullying to the Tory Party.
Mr Johnson later secretly taped Mr Clarke threatening to ‘destroy’ him in a 90-minute showdown in another pub.
A week after the first row with Mr Clarke, Mr Johnson was left ‘heartbroken’ when he was sacked by CWF. The police report says he began researching suicide methods on his computer the same day.
Mr Johnson’s complaint against Mr Clarke, which he later withdrew, triggered at least 20 more, including some of alleged sexual harassment from female volunteers.
The report describes how at 11.30pm on the night before he died, Mr Johnson researched suicide methods, booked his train ticket online, and wrote the suicide notes.
He turned off the computer at 2.30am and left a handwritten note saying, ‘It was the best of times it was the worst of times’ next to a photograph of him at university with his parents.
The next day he caught a train from King’ s Cross to Sandy in Bedfordshire. He left the train at just after 4pm, placed his silver hip flask containing vodka and orange on a blue towel and lay down on the track. Just over two hours later his body was spotted.
Mr Johnson’s father said last night: ‘ Elliot did have mental health issues some years ago but he was better. They were not serious suicide attempts, they were cries for help. We are determined to get justice for Elliot.’
Mr Clarke has denied all the allegations against him. ÷For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See www. samaritans.org for details.
‘Determined to get justice’