Suicide mum ‘was begging for help’
Family tells inquest – ‘Sheila was let down time after time’
AMUM-OF-FOUR killed herself after a downward spiral of addiction, depression and self harm, an inquest heard.
Sheila Griffin, 36, was found not guilty of having sex with an underage boy two years before her death, but the criminal investigation had a ‘profound effect’, a coroner was told.
It led to her losing custody of three of her four children which triggered a series of mental health problems, Mrs Griffin’s mum Debbie Brown and grandma Sheila Nokes told the hearing.
Mrs Nokes said: “The criminal investigation had a profound effect on her. She couldn’t even talk about it.
“Then after losing the custody case she began to nosedive.”
Mrs Griffin, who was originally from Littleborough, was found dead at her grandma’s home in Kirkholt on the morning of October 15, last year, after taking a lethal overdose of prescribed painkillers and epilepsy medication.
The inquest in Heywood on Tuesday heard she had a history of mental health problems, self harm and depression.
She also drank excessively and was addicted to painkillers.
Mrs Griffin was said to have first started showing signs of depression as a teenager and suffered post-natal depression after the birth of all four of her children. In 2008, while working at Highfield Hospital in Rochdale, she fell and fractured her skull.
The accident left her with brain damage and epilepsy and meant she was required to take the painkillers to which she eventually became addicted.
In 2016 her depression worsened and she attempted to kill herself on four occasions, the inquest heard.
Following two of those attempts, on September 2 and September 29, she was admitted to the John Elliott mental health unit at Birch Hill hospital in Rochdale. She took her own life on October 15 last year, just 10 days after being discharged from the unit for the second time, it was said.
Mrs Brown said Sheila’s death left her ‘devastated and heartbroken’ and described her as a ‘good mum and a lovely person’, and said the family had concerns about the care given to her daughter.
She said: “She begged for psychiatric help, she begged for it, but she was told that it was normal to try to take your own life. She was screaming for help but she wasn’t being listened to. She was let down time after time.”
But Dr David Rimmer, consultant psychiatrist at the John Elliott unit, said Mrs Griffin’s drinking and painkiller addiction combined with her reluctance to talk about the court case made it extremely difficult to treat her. Dr Rimmer said a ‘multi disciplinary review’ carried out on October 3 found Mrs Griffin was ‘stable’ and could be discharged.
He added: “The problem we had is that she did not like talking about the court case in any way that some form of counselling might have helped. If somebody does not want to talk about something it is very difficult to bring it out.
“It needs to be done over a very long period of time. I do not know what more we could have done.”
Assistant coroner Peter Sigee recorded a conclusion of suicide.
He said: “It would appear to have been an impulsive action without any warning or indication to those who loved her.”