Third mystery death linked to celebrity mental clinic in less than a year
AN EXCLUSIVE private psychiatric hospital is believed to have suffered a third suicide in less than a year, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Shaquelle Vidal, 23, the daughter of a TV comedian, died on April 7 after spending almost a month as a ‘ voluntary’ patient at the Nightingale Hospital in Marylebone, West London.
She was the girlfriend of James Lyle, 57, a millionaire hedge fund boss and former Conservative Party donor, who met the fivefigure cost for her care.
The trainee chef ’s death came almost exactly six months after that of socialite and artist Daisy Boyd, 28, the granddaughter of River Cafe co-founder Rose Gray.
Miss Boyd, who had struggled to deal with her split from publishing heir Dan Macmillan, 43, died on October 5 under the influence of cocaine smuggled in by a visitor.
Two months earlier, Alan MacDonald, 61, a film set designer, took his life four days after being discharged from the hospital. In May, the Care Quality Commission criti- cised the Nightingale for doing too little to combat ‘illicit substances’ being brought on to the premises.
Shaquelle, the daughter of BBC’s Mock The Week panellist Ava Vidal, went into the hospital on March 11. Katie Gollop QC told a pre-inquest hearing at Westminster Coroner’s Court last week that she had gone ‘AWOL’ on March 29 and when she returned a week later, her mental state had deteriorated. Ms Gollop, acting for Ava Vidal, said: ‘My client would like to piece together what was happening to Shaquelle… to understand who it was she was in contact with, and what she was doing.’ She referred to Mr Lyle as Shaquelle’s ‘boyfriend’.
Comedy director John Gordillo, 52, who was described as Shaquelle’s ‘unofficial stepfather’, said: ‘I know Shaquelle was still in contact with James Lyle, and he was based in New York at the time.’
Mr Gordillo told the hearing that on April 4 he called the hospital ‘more than a dozen times’ in 20 minutes after Shaquelle rang him to claim she wanted to buy and take cyanide, but that no one answered. ‘It seems to me that, had someone picked up during that period, what followed could have been avoided,’ he added.
On April 5, a doctor at the hospital assessed Shaquelle as being ‘acutely psychiatrically unwell’. Less than 48 hours later, she hanged herself using a laptop cable. A Nightingale spokesman extended sympathy to her family and friends and said: ‘Our hospital is committed to providing high standards of care in a safe and therapeutic environment.’
‘It seems this could have been avoided’
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