Tragic lawyer’s suspension
A PARTNER at a global law firm was found dead after he was suspended for alleged inappropriate sexual behaviour at works parties, an inquest has been told. Geraint Thomas, 47, was found dead at Southerndown on December 18 last year.
A PARTNER at a global law firm was found dead after he was suspended for alleged inappropriate sexual behaviour at works parties, an inquest has been told.
Geraint Thomas, 47, from Cardiff, worked for multinational law practice Eversheds Sutherland as a Brexit lawyer, giving advice to business owners ahead of the UK’s exit from the EU.
Yesterday, an inquest was told the senior solicitor was found dead in the Vale of Glamorgan just hours after he was told in a human resources (HR) meeting that a number of people had raised complaints about his behaviour at two works parties.
Lorraine Kilborn, Eversheds’ international HR director, told the coroner’s court in Pontypridd that Mr Thomas was “polite and calm” when she told him he was being suspended while the company investigated the complaints.
She said: “When we suspended him, we did ask him to leave the building, and he said ‘OK, I’ll collect my things and go’.”
Anthony Rees, a fellow partner at the law firm who also attended the meeting, said the allegations “were treated as a potentially serious matter and related to an allegation of inappropriate sexual behaviour”.
Mr Thomas’ wife told the inquest she believed the information he was given at the HR meeting was “fundamental” to him being found dead at Southerndown on December 18 last year.
Rebecca Thomas said the couple and their two children had been about to embark on “the trip of a lifetime” to celebrate Christmas on the east coast of Australia, and said she had no concerns about him over the weekend before his death while they celebrated with family.
She said: “He was the happiest and least stressed I’d seen him. He was excited about the trip.
“To say he was looking forward to it is an understatement.
“There was absolutely no hint anything was troubling him at this time.
“He always told me in the past if something was troubling him at work.
“Normally I can see when he’s clearly distracted but there were no signs of this whatsoever over this weekend.”
Mrs Thomas said the last time she saw her husband was on Monday morning when he kissed her on the cheek and said he would be home at 7.30pm.
She messaged him twice when he failed to return home, and filed a missing person’s report when security guards at his office said he had not been at his office all day.
Mrs Thomas said: “I was not party to the information at the HR meeting he’d attended at work that day.
“I’ve no doubt what was said at that meeting was fundamental to Geraint’s change of state in mind and subsequent actions later that day.”
A man matching Mr Thomas’ description and said to have been looking “slightly distracted” was seen at the beach by a walker at about 2pm.
Officers searching for Mr Thomas, then identified as a “high risk person”, found his car parked in the early hours of the following morning, before a police helicopter located his body at about 4.45am.
Pathologist Stephen Leadbetter said Mr Thomas had injuries in keeping with “a descent from height on to rocks”, and said there was no evidence of the involvement of another individual.
He gave a cause of death as multiple injuries including blunt head injury and fracture of the right femur.
Nicola Martin, a toxicologist, said there was no evidence to suggest he had taken alcohol or drugs. Coroner Graeme Hughes said he could not be satisfied Mr Thomas had intended to take his own life, and gave a narrative conclusion after saying it was possible the solicitor’s death could have been an accident.
Mr Hughes said: “I have no direct evidence that he left the cliff top deliberately, ie he jumped. That’s a possibility.
“It’s also possible in the dark, the heavy rain and high-speed winds, he simply travelled too close to the cliff edge and either slipped, fell, or was blown off the edge.
“I remind myself suicide can never be presumed and must be proved to justify its finding.
“Also there is no evidence he formed an intention to take his own life.”
Giving his verdict, the coroner said: “The deceased died as a consequence of catastrophic injuries sustained following a descent from cliffs.
“The circumstances of how he travelled from the top of the cliffs to its foot cannot be sufficiently determined on the available evidence.”
Mr Thomas studied at Jesus College at Oxford University between 1989 and 1992, before gaining a BA and a masters degree in history.
A professional biography on his law firm’s website stated he was one of the firm’s “Brexit lawyers”, who worked with clients to plan ahead.
His expertise were listed as consumer credit, mortgage regulation and savings and deposit products.
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