A ‘highly talented’ university lecturer killed herself after her husband began an extra marital affair and wanted a divorce, an inquest has heard.
Dr Claire Dinan began suffering from anxiety and depression following the breakdown of her 28-year marriage when husband Frank O’Friel revealed he had met someone at work, Exeter Coroner’s Court heard.
The Area Coroner Nicholas Lane said Dr Dinan struggled with her mental health in the weeks and months before she died and was suffering anxiety and depression largely due to the news of her husband’s affair.
The 53-year-old also believed her two children, who she adored, would be better off without her and thought her death would allow her friends and family to ‘get on with their lives’.
Dr Dinan had also written a journal which highlighted the turmoil she was going through, adding that the ordeal had left her ‘sad and broken’.
The inquest heard she had twice made plans to kill herself by using plastic bags and also jumping off cliffs.
She had lost weight because she was not eating properly and was also suffering with a lack of sleep in the weeks before her death in April 2023.
The coroner said Dr Dinan also thought she was being a burden on her sister and mother, who later discovered her body hanging at her home in Teignmouth, Devon, where she had gone to stay the night before.
University lecturer Dr Claire Dinan who killed herself after her husband began an extra marital affair and asked for a divorce
Dr Dinan completed her PhD at the University of Exeter in geography in the marketing of sustainable tourism in the Business School.
The university said the mother of two was ‘a highly skilled researcher and educator whose work on sustainable tourism influenced national policy’.
The inquest heard Dr Dinan had self referred to Talk Works, Devon NHS Talking Therapies Service, but it was felt she was too high risk for them to take on.
Dr Dinan was then in contact with the Community Mental Health Team who she called in the hours before she died, but she was told that she would not be taken on to their caseload as her risk was low.
The coroner referred to a ‘potential gap in the service’ which can have catastrophic consequences but was told that improvements have since been made although funding was still an issue.
Mr O’Friel said his wife was a ‘very anxious person’ who liked routine and certainty.
He said her journal ‘made it clear to me the turmoil she was going through and had made plans to end her own life’.
Days after her death he found notes addressed to family members in her bedroom drawers and a rope tied into a noose.
Exeter Coroner’s Court (pictured) heard Dr Dinan began suffering from anxiety and depression following the breakdown of her 28-year marriage with husband Frank O’Friel
The inquest heard in December 2022 Mr O’Friel wanted them to separate and in February 2023 she was left devastated when told he had met someone at work.
Her mother said the marital breakdown left her daughter with a loss of confidence, incoherent with grief and impacted her mental health.
The night before she died Dr Dinan was upset at the marital home they shared, so her husband drove her to her mother’s home where she stayed the night and called the first response team the next morning to help her.
But she was left feeling ‘bemused’ at their response because ‘no one believed her’.
When her mother went out for the morning, she returned to find her daughter hanged.
She left a note for her parents apologising for what she had done but saying: ‘I don’t have a role any longer, I cannot go on. All my love, Claire.’
Her sister said Claire was ‘an intelligent and articulate individual with a very responsible job’ but was in a ‘sea of chaos’ as she took ‘one step forward and two steps backwards’.
Coroner Mr Lane said: ‘Clearly there were many significant issues in recent days, weeks and months prior to her very sad death.’
He said Dr Dinan suffered an acute stress reaction to the marital breakdown.
Mr Lane said her family were unaware of the extent of her thought processes about killing herself which came to light later in notes and the journal.
He said the phone call she had that morning with the mental health team may have contributed to her decision to kill herself but was not the direct cause, as that her ‘ongoing personal problems’.
For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123, visit samaritans.org or visit https://www.thecalmzone.net/get-support
