Judge hanged himself at care home in despair after getting dementia

A FORMER leading family judge killed himself after he lost the will to live following a dementia diagnosis, an inquest heard yesterday.

Sir Nicholas Wall said he had no hope for the future and believed his illness would mean he would lose his memory and have to remain in a care home.

He had been Britain’s most senior family judge but retired due to health problems in 2012 and had suffered for years from the effects of his rare form of dementia, although it was only diagnosed shortly before his death in February aged 71.

Sir Nicholas, a grandfather, was found hanged in his room at the Emily Jackson House care home in Sevenoaks, Kent.

He suffered from fronto-temporal lobe dementia – also known as Pick’s disease – which affects parts of the brain that control behaviour, emotions and the understanding of words. The Maidstone inquest heard that he had lost hope of ever getting better and had pushed his loved ones away in the belief his death was imminent.

Acting Detective Sergeant Robert Grieve told the hearing Sir Nicholas had left a letter for his wife of 40 years, Margaret, in which he said he believed he would never be able to return to live at home. He said: ‘Sir Nicholas said he had lost the will to live and he will not get better and that Lady Wall had a life to live.

‘He said his time is over, it’s nobody’s fault and he respects what she has done for him.’

In another letter, written before his condition was diagnosed, Sir Nicholas said he had no hope for the future, that he valued the help and support of his family but believed his condition would continue to deteriorate and he would lose his memory.

The inquest heard a nurse was the last person to see him when she visited his room with a cup of tea and some medication the night before his body was discovered. She told police Sir Nicholas had made a joke about her being late and had smiled, and that he was read-

‘Champion of open justice’

ing a book when she left him. Coroner Roger Hatch recorded a suicide verdict and said it was clear from his letter to his wife that Sir Nicholas had intended to kill himself.

Sir Nicholas, a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, was called to the Bar in 1969 and was appointed President of the Family Division of the High Court in 2010.

A champion of open justice, he was instrumental in opening up to public scrutiny the secretive Court of Protection, which rules on issues concerning the care of those suffering mental illness.

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