A ‘bubbly’ and ‘determined’ woman, ‘whose smile lit up the room’, took her own life by ingesting a poisonous substance that she had bought online.
Kelly Walsh, 45, died after taking the substance, which the Manchester Evening News is choosing not to name, at her Atherton home on February 27 2021, an inquest at Bolton Coroner’s Court heard. A senior coroner has now vowed to write to the Home Secretary following a spate of deaths in Greater Manchester, linked to the controlled poison.
The hearing was the final in a cluster of six to be presided over by Timothy Brennand - the senior coroner for Greater Manchester West - and follows inquests into the deaths of Chantelle Williams, Matthew O’Reilly, Samuel Dickenson, Mathew Price, and Shaun Bass. On each occasion, Mr Brenand concluded that the cause of death was ‘toxicity’ relating to the same controlled poison.
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The court heard that Kelly had purchased the substance after seeking out advice on an online forum. The website, which the MEN is not identifying by name, describes itself as a ‘safe space’ in its ‘information section’, but Detective Inspector Andrew Wright of Greater Manchester Police told the hearing that numerous forum posts contain advice and instructions on how people can acquire the controlled poison for the purposes of suicide.
DI Wright confirmed that GMP carried out a joint investigation with Surrey and Sussex Police after tracing the purchase of the poison, in all of the cases except Kelly's, to a premises on the 'south coast'. The business, which was not named, had provided the substance to more than 200 people across Europe and was linked to 57 confirmed deaths, DI Wright said.
He added that as a result of the investigation, they also prevented a further 80 people who had bought the poison from taking it. No criminal charges were brought against the business, as the owners believed that they were selling it to people for legitimate reasons, DI Wright said. They have since stopped selling the chemical.
"They were both extremely upset," he added. "They both came across as decent people who had no idea of other uses of [the substance]."
DI Wright told the hearing that he was made aware of a concern for the welfare of Kelly shortly before 7pm on the evening of her death. One of the people to raise concerns was Kelly’s boyfriend - former Bury and Crewe Alexandra footballer Andy Woodward.
Mr Woodward told the hearing that Kelly had been staying with him in Halifax, Yorkshire, after the pair got into a relationship in early December 2020. Mr Woodward, who also served in Lancashire Police upon his early retirement from football, told the court that Kelly believed she was pregnant, despite ‘a couple’ of negative tests. He also said that “she had spiritual belief that she had this gift” of communicating with the spirit world - something that he believed.
“She was telling me things she’d have never known about my dad and childhood. It literally blew my mind away and I thought how would Kelly know these things about my father,” he said. However, Mr Woodward conceded that ‘with the benefit of hindsight’, this could have been a case of Kelly’s mental health issues manifesting themselves as hallucinations.
He said that on the morning of February 27 2021, she left his apartment and told him that she was heading back to Greater Manchester to meet her mum and planned to return in the afternoon, so that they could have a takeaway.
DI Wright said that CCTV footage from Kelly’s apartment in Atherton showed that she arrived at around 11.20am. Mr Woodward told the inquest that he “started to fret and wonder where she was” at 6.30pm, so got in touch with Kelly’s mum Christine Walsh, who in turn contacted GMP.
When emergency services attended at Kelly’s home, they found her dead on her bed. There was also evidence that she had ingested the controlled poison, DI Wright confirmed.
He added that on Kelly’s phone, there was a text message, which stated that a DPD delivery had been completed. DI Wright understood that the text related to the delivery of the poison, as open DPD packaging was left close to where the poison was found in the kitchen. DI Wright told the court that he did not find any evidence of suspicious circumstances or third party involvement. Pathologist Dr David Barker carried out a post mortem on Kelly’s body and recorded ‘[poison] toxicity’ as the sole cause of death.
Mr Brennand asked forensic toxicologist Julie Evans whether the poison could be used to provide a ‘high’ or whether the sole reason for ingesting it would be to take one’s life. “It is not something that would be taken for a euphoria type effect,” she responded.
In a pen portrait, Ms Walsh described Kelly as ‘bubbly’, ‘personable’, ‘intelligent’, and ‘determined’. “She had a smile that lit up the room,” Ms Walsh added.
In her statement, she said that Kelly had a ‘very successful’ sales career in her 20s, before setting up her own company called ‘Positivity Princess Media’, but that “sadly her mental health issues often held her back from reaching her full potential”.
Ms Walsh told the court that she had always had a good relationship with Kelly, but that in October 2020, she started sending her ‘aggressive’ messages, including accusations that Ms Walsh had murdered Kelly’s father - who took his own life a few years earlier. Ms Walsh also raised concerns that she felt that Mr Woodward had been a ‘controlling’ partner.
Mr Brennand said that he ‘accepted that this is the family’s honestly held view’ but said exploring such concerns about the relationship was not in the ‘scope of the inquest’. He added: “The most that I’m prepared to determine is that after listening to the evidence of Mr Woodward, I am nevertheless satisfied that that relationship was, upon any view, dysfunctional.”
When questioned by the Walsh family barrister Aqsa Hussain on why he did not attend Kelly’s funeral, Mr Woodward said that it was because he had been sectioned in the aftermath of a documentary that aired in March 2021, regarding the sexual abuse he was subjected to at the hands of former Crewe Alexandra youth coach and Manchester City scout Barry Bennell. After finishing his evidence, he broke down in tears and said: “I want some peace in life, that’s all.”
Medical evidence heard in court stated that Kelly had multiple previous suicide attempts, including an attempted overdose of Paracetamol in 2009. She also had a number of inpatient stays at hospital.
Recording a conclusion of suicide, Mr Brennand said: “From approximately October 2020, she was to enter a phase of deteriorating mental ill health. Her presenting symptomologies were to include phases of episodic psychotic lapses, delusional thoughts and actions. Her mental health condition had been treated with phases of hospital inpatient admission and community based treatment... I am entirely satisfied that the act that brought about her death was a deliberate one.”
He continued that he did not believe that the poison had been part of a ‘suicide kit’, as seen in the other linked inquests, due to a lack of an antiemetic - usually included in the kits to ensure that the poison does not make the person throw up. “I am nevertheless satisfied that she possessed the intelligence and insight to research [the poison] as a means to bring her life to an end,” he added. “I don’t consider this to have been a cry for help as the other self-harming episodes may well have been categorised.”
Mr Brennand confirmed that he will write a Prevention of Future Deaths report, addressed to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, asking for a 'root and branch review' on the public availability and regulation of the poisonous substance. He also commended DI Wright for his investigation.
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