‘I WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING TO HURT HIM. I LOVED HIM.”
Inquest unable to find the cause of death of man, 34
AN INQUEST has failed to determine how a 37-year-old man sustained a head injury that caused his death.
Mark Garlick was pronounced dead at his home in Hanley back in 2018, after his husband woke to find him unresponsive in bed.
He was found to have a number of injuries to his head and body which sparked a police investigation.
Mr Garlick’s husband – Quinlan Reardon-garlick – was arrested in connection with his death.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) later decided no criminal charges should be brought, and an inquest has now been able to take place.
It heard the couple, who lived in Mayer Street, had been together for 18 years and had a ‘volatile’ relationship.
Giving evidence, Mr ReardonGarlick said his husband had been drinking a lot in the months prior to his death on March 13, 2018, which would sometimes lead to violence.
The inquest heard the couple had argued two days earlier due to Mr Garlick’s drinking.
Mr Reardon-garlick said his husband had punched him to the back, where he had had surgery, and he then spun around and punched Mr Garlick in the face.
The next evening they arranged to meet at a Hanley pub.
Mr Reardon-garlick said: “When Mark arrived he seemed really drunk. I got him home about 7.30pm and made him oatcakes. He still seemed quite out of it. He stood up to go to the kitchen, tripped and fell over.”
Mr Reardon-garlick said his husband then picked up his coat and said he was going out but, after hearing a thud, he found Mr Garlick had fallen over again.
He added: “He was face down. I turned him over. There was blood on his face, I cleaned him up. I picked him up and tried to get him to the sofa. Because of my back I dropped him.”
Mr Reardon-garlick said, due to his back condition, he was not easily able to manoeuvre Mr Garlick, and dropped him twice. He said Mr Garlick hit his head on a door handle as he was moved to the sofa.
He added: “I eventually got him on the sofa. He turned to me and said, ‘You need to help me, I can’t keep going on like this’. I said it would be okay.
“I wish I had called an ambulance then but he didn’t want it. He’d had an ambulance out to him three times in the last month and told them to go away, so I thought there was no point.”
Mr Reardon-garlick said the couple then talked before going to bed at 2am. He said he woke at around 4am to hear Mr Garlick making strange noises but said that was not unusual. When he woke at 6am, Mr Garlick was cold to the touch. Paramedics attended but he was pronounced dead.
A post-mortem examination found Mr Garlick had, in addition to the traumatic head injury that caused his death, ‘a myriad of blunt force injuries’ – of various ages – and facial injuries. He had suffered a subdural haematoma, or bleed on the brain, consistent with an injury to the back of his head.
When asked by assistant coroner Margaret Jones whether he had deliberately caused any injury to his husband, Mr Reardon-garlick said: “No. I would never do anything to hurt him. I loved him.”
Detective Inspector Cheryl Hannan, from Staffordshire Police, gave evidence about the police investigation.
She said: “Quin was initially treated as a witness. Concerns were raised when friends and work colleagues of Mr Garlick contacted police to report domestic violence had been disclosed to them. Quin was arrested on March 16.
“There was a complex relationship between the two men. There appeared to be the suggestion of domestic violence towards one, if not both.”
DI Hannan said a file of evidence was presented to the CPS to consider bringing charges of murder, manslaughter or manslaughter by gross negligence in relation to Mr Garlick’s death, or of domestic violence.
“It was deemed that there was insufficient evidence to meet the criminal standard of proof,” she told the inquest.
Mrs Jones recorded an open conclusion.
She said: “It’s clear from the medical evidence that it is not possible to say whether these injuries were accidental or whether they had been deliberately caused. The evidence does not fully disclose the means by which Mark came by his death.”
BASFORD
A 34-YEAR-OLD woman has admitted leaving the scene of a collision while drink driving.
Jennifer Roberts, of Sackville Street, Basford, pleaded guilty to driving while over the alcohol limit and failing to stop after a road accident.
The offences took place on August 2. She will be sentenced on October 29 after a pre-sentence report is prepared by the Probation Service.