Inquest Hear Olympic Boxer Was "Distraught" Day Before He Died

An inquest has heard how former Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland was “distraught” during a telephone conversation the day before took his own life.

Former trainer, Brian Lawrence, told the inquest how during a 15-minute conversation on September 13, 2009, the boxer said: “My life is over, my family have abandoned me.” Mr Lawrence told how he asked Sutherland if he’d had an argument with his family and that, “It’s no big deal, everybody has arguments with their family.”

However, Mr Lawrence said he had not called the 27-year-old’s manager, Frank Maloney, or anyone else after the call because he believed the boxer “had calmed down” by the end.

“I wasn’t troubled by it. I knew he had problems, but I did not think that he was going to do what he did,” he told the inquest.

Regarded by many to be a future champion after winning a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, Sutherland was found hanging from a radiator in his flat in Tetty Way in Bromley.

Psychologist Joe Dunbar raised the alarm after he was unable to contact Sutherland, later he and Frank Maloney, a London boxing promoter, found the boxers body.

“I was not surprised he killed himself.” Dubar told the inquest. “Because of the conversations I had had with him that week and him being incredibly low, when I couldn’t get hold of him [on Monday] I was worried he had done what he’d done,” he said.”

(H)