Grant Townsend, 26, was known in the town of Starella Grove, in the western part of Hull in England, as a ‘sweet crook who always carried a smile’, but beneath the smile was a troubled mood.
Townsend has suffered a large part of his life from mental health issues, but the problems were exacerbated in 2017 when he was falsely accused of rape. He was eventually acquitted, but his mother, Keely Gillbey, told investigators he was concerned that “the rapist will never disappear.”
The court in Hull Coroner conducted an investigation into Townsend’s death and determined he had committed suicide and said he was struggling to continue the false charges against him. Gillbey told investigators that Townsend, after being accused, “found it difficult to leave the house” but still told her he was fine and did not need any mental health support, reports Daily Mail. Gillbey said she found a suicide note written by Townsend before his death, which contained a line stating ‘he claims he was innocent’, but that she never discussed the letter with her son. However, she insisted that he should know that she had found the note when she threw out some pills she had found in Townsend’s room.
After the incident, the Mail reported, Townsend found a girlfriend and moved in together. Gillbey said ‘they did have problems’ and eventually explained. Townsend struggled to find work after the false allegations, which are pressing the relationship. Townsend was kicked out of the house he shared with the woman and moved back in with his mother.
“The day he got home, he was sobbing and he could barely go outside and was fed up with everything,” Gillbey was quoted as saying by the Mail. She said after her son moved in again, she would cry for him in the kitchen. She said she knows he’s really struggling with everything that happened and that he ‘cries himself to sleep’.
The false allegations were merely the catalyst for a long history of traumatic events. Townsend was born in Kent, but the divorce of his parent led him and his mother to move to Hull, where he was ‘bullied for his accent’ in high school and ‘started hanging out with the wrong crowd’, she said. mother told the court for the coroner. She also said Townsend ‘found it difficult to know what his mother was going through, and to face it, citing abuse she had suffered in the past.
Another blow came when Townsend’s uncle died, Gillbey said.
‘[L]because he pronounced his uncle Grant, after whom he is named, in a motorcycle accident 11 years ago – he really took it very seriously and it was then that I really noticed a decrease in Grant, ‘she told the court said.
His mental health “gradually deteriorated” after the false accusations.
“He was found not guilty – it took them less than ten minutes before everyone returned with an innocent verdict,” his mother told the court, according to the Mail. ‘But it greatly affected Grant, especially knowing what I was going through as a child. Being accused of it a lot really did it. I saw him deteriorate. ”
Gillbey came home to find that Townsend had committed suicide on June 6, 2020.
“He was a little sweet crook. “Looking at him, meeting him, you will not know that something is wrong,” she said. “He always wore a smile when he saw him, he always laughed to like his friends and his friends loved it.”
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