I’ve let you all down badly
Final letter of sacked Welsh Labour minister found hanged by wife after groping claims
A LABOUR minister accused of inappropriate behaviour towards women was found hanged after comments by the Welsh First Minister ‘fuelled his despair’, an inquest heard yesterday.
Carl Sargeant, 49, left a handwritten note for his family saying: ‘I have let you all down badly.’
He was found dead four days after Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones dismissed him as Wales’s communities secretary in a ‘difficult’ conversation.
Mr Sargeant’s wife Bernadette discovered his body in the utility room at their house in Connah’s Quay, north Wales, on the morning of November 7 last year, the inquest was told.
She had found a message on the door telling her not to enter and instead to call police, but immediately went inside.
Mrs Sargeant, 49, sobbed quietly as the inquest in Ruthin was read the note he left, addressed to his wife, their children Lucy, now 28, and Jack, 24, and ‘family/friends’.
It read: ‘I have let you all down badly. You deserve none of this adverse publicity because of my acts. I have failed you. That aside, I love you more than you will ever know and I am sorry I have taken the easy way out leaving you with my s***.
‘Please forgive me, I love you.’ It was signed ‘Carl/Dad’. Mr Sargeant had been sacked and suspended from the Welsh Labour Party on November 3 after several women allegedly accused him of ‘ unwanted attention, inappropriate touching or groping’.
His former special adviser Sophie Howe told the inquest he struggled with his mental health despite coming across as ‘bubbly’. ‘He used to say “I’m having a real black dog day”,’ she said.
She was worried to learn he had been sacked and arranged to meet him in Cardiff that day. Describing him as ‘ ashen’, ‘vacant’ and ‘broken’, she added: ‘He seemed in a terrible state.’
Mr Sargeant saw a solicitor that day but could not obtain more information on the claims against him. ‘He was distraught – he didn’t know what he was dealing with,’ Mrs Howe said.
Leighton Andrews, a former Welsh Labour cabinet colleague
and friend of Mr Sargeant, said he had texted Mr Jones, with the First Minister replying that the conversation in which he sacked Mr Sargeant had been ‘very difficult’.
Mr Andrews said from speaking to friends of Mr Sargeant at the time he believed interviews with Mr Jones broadcast the day before his death had a ‘significant impact’ on his state of mind. The First Minster had told the BBC that ‘action is taken’ when ‘we have somebody who is in a position where they could embarrass the party or bring the party into disrepute’.
Mr Andrews said he had been told the comments ‘fuelled his despair’. Mrs Howe said Mr Sargeant’s mood appeared to improve after returning to Connah’s Quay on Sunday, only to take a ‘ downward turn’ when a BBC journalist called at the family home the following day.
Mrs Howe said he sounded ‘spaced out’ when she spoke to him the next morning shortly before his body was found.
Mr Sargeant’s GP, David Morris, said he had complained of low mood in March 2012 and was given antidepressants. He continued taking these on and off until his death, with an unspecified family ‘life event’ said to have contributed to his difficulties. The inquest continues. For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123, go to a branch or visit www.samaritans.org.
‘He seemed in a terrible state’