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Friday March 13, 2020
No. 936
First case of coronavirus in the district
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Paul Kane’s death ruled as suicide
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Former Dewsbury East councillor Paul Kane was Mayor of Kirklees in 2015/2016
Coroner stresses that inquest aimed at ‘how’ Labour man died, not ‘why’ By Staff Reporters FORMER Dewsbury East Labour councillor and Kirklees Mayor Paul Kane was being treated for depression before he committed suicide in November, an inquest was told this week. Senior Coroner Martin Fleming heard how Mr Kane had seen his doctor suffering from stress, been prescribed medication for depression and to help him sleep, and had suffered a panic attack in the two weeks before his stepson Michael
Thornton found him hanging from the loft hatch in the bedroom at his bungalow in Bywell Close. Post mortem and toxicology reports revealed no evidence of alcohol or other drugs in Mr Kane’s system and Kirklees Police Det Sgt Mike Smith told the inquest no suicide note was left in his “tidily kept” bungalow. Likewise, DS Smith said nothing had been found on his laptops or phones to indicate why he took his life. His long-standing GP, Dr Hanume Thimmegowda, said in a statement
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that he had seen the 62-year-old on October 23rd and said “he looked sad, was not sleeping well and was irritable”. It was stated that Mr Kane had said he was not feeling suicidal – something he repeated the following week in another visit to his GP. However, close friends of Mr Kane, including his girlfriend of the past two years, have criticised the proceedings at Bradford on Monday, saying it “whitewashed” some of the serious issues troubling him, including his attempt to retract his resig-
nation from Kirklees Council a few days after submitting it, and potential evidence of online threats towards him from Labour activist Paul Moore. The Coroner, Mr Fleming, said
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Mr Kane had been concerned about a “police investigation”. Shortly before his death the long-serving former councillor had been
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