Coroner cannot conclude tycoon who fell from flat killed himself
Not enough evidence to rule out ‘another scenario’, says inquest into death of indebted businessman
AN INQUEST into the death of Scot Young, the tycoon who fell from a window at his fourth floor London flat, has declared there was insufficient evidence to conclude he took his own life.
The 52-year-old property developer, who had been locked in a long-lasting divorce battle with his ex-wife Michelle, was killed instantly when he plummeted on to iron railings beneath his Marylebone apartment on the evening of Dec 8 last year.
Yesterday, a coroner heard how Mr Young, who was bankrupt and deeply in debt, had threatened to jump just moments earlier during an angry phone call with his American girlfriend, Noelle Reno.
But after being told that his two daughters feared his death may have involved a third party, Dr Shirley Radcliffe, the assistant coroner for Westminster, said she could not state for certain it was a case of suicide.
A lawyer for the daughters, Sasha and Scarlet Young, invited the coroner to consider whether “scuff marks” on the window frame and marks on Mr Young’s arms might indicate “another scenario”. Delivering a narrative verdict, Dr Radcliffe said: “There is insuf- ficient evidence to determine his state of mind and intention when he came out of the window.” But she said there was also no evidence to suggest police had got it wrong when they concluded that his death was “non-suspicious”.
Friends of the Dundee-born entrepreneur, who was the fifth member of a close circle of friends to die in similar circumstances, said they feared he may have been killed by the Russian or Turkish mafia after getting into debt.
Miss Reno, who had been in an onoff relationship with Mr Young for four and a half years, told Westminster coroner’s court that he received scores of phone calls each day from people he owed money to and had expressed concern that his life might be in danger.
The hearing was told that he had a “complex” mental history having twice been sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Giving evidence, Dr Rachel Berg, a psychiatrist who saw Mr Young on the day he died, said he suffered from bi-polar affective disorder and was also a heavy cocaine user.
On Dec 4 last year he had turned up at St Mary’s Hospital in London saying he believed people were trying to kill him. He said he believed Miss Reno was part of the conspiracy and claimed he was hearing voices telling him that the world was about to end.
Dr Berg said that after being admitted to a mental health unit his condition quickly improved and it was subsequently determined that he had suffered a “drug-induced psychotic episode” after taking large amounts of cocaine every day for three weeks. On Dec 8, Mr Young discharged himself, but Dr Berg said there was no suggestion he intended to self-harm.
He returned to the £9,000-a-month rented flat he shared with Miss Reno but the pair argued after she ordered a locksmith to change the locks and told him she wanted him out of her life. After Miss Reno left the flat, Mr Young spoke to one of his daughters on the phone and left a voicemail message for the other at 5.08pm. In the message, which was played to the court, he sounded calm and cheery, telling his daughter: “Hi darling, just wanted to say I love you. Miss you terribly … don’t worry about me, love you, bye.”
At 5.13pm he sent a text to Miss Reno, which she never received, which read: “Now I have hit rock bottom as you will see! Loved you like no other. Love you always and forever.” She rang him to say she was going to call the police to get him out of the flat, but he told her: “I am going to jump out of the window, stay on the line and you will hear me.” Miss Reno then dialled 999, but when officers arrived they found Mr Young’s body impaled on the iron railings.
A post mortem examination found no alcohol or drugs in his system and nothing to suggest he had been involved in a struggle before he fell.