The Sentinel

MAN FOUND DEAD WAS FACING POLICE CHARGES

40-year-old’s body discovered in outhouse

- Kathie Mcinnes katherine.mcinnes@reachplc.com

BUILDERS working on a property due to be let out to students found the body of a 40-year-old man in an outhouse.

An inquest heard John Rizza had been helping out on the renovation project in Watford Street, Shelton, during the summer.

But he went back to the site hours after discoverin­g he was facing a criminal charge in relation to a Northumbri­a Police matter.

Staffordsh­ire Police served the postal requisitio­n, on behalf of the other force, on August 20.

Then in the early hours of the following morning, officers were called to a report of a row between him and his partner. It resulted in Mr Rizza being asked to leave their Fenton home for the night.

In a statement, his partner said they had been together since March 2020 and he had moved to Stoke-ontrent to live with her.

But they had an argument over a family matter and she called the police at 1am on August 21.

“John appeared calm when he left at about 1.30am to 1.45am,” she said. “The officers told me they had taken him to Hanley. I went out for a cigarette. I saw John’s face over the fence. The police were still at the front, so I went and told them. They did a check, but couldn’t locate him.”

That was the last time she saw her partner alive. A short while later, the warehouse operative was found in the outhouse in Shelton. The cause of death was put down to hanging.

On the wall of the building, he appeared to have etched out words, which read ‘I’m sorry’.

The inquest was told that as a result of the previous police involvemen­t, the case was referred to the Independen­t Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

But the IOPC said it was decided the matter should be dealt with by Staffordsh­ire Police’s profession­al standards instead.

The nature of the criminal charge Mr Rizza was facing has not been revealed.

North Staffordsh­ire assistant coroner Sarah Murphy said: “It’s not for the inquest to try to ascertain why somebody did this.

“But from the evidence, there is enough to suggest that, by virtue of recent circumstan­ces prior to his death, he intended to take his own life.”

She recorded a conclusion of suicide.

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