Mental Breakdown and I am Swindled out of my Inheritance
I had lived at 74 Main Street in Egremont since 1998. From 2000, over the next half dozen years, from time to time, my mother had suggested signing the flat over into my name, but I had not taken her up on this offer. Therefore, when my mother died in 2006 my brother was a left joint-heir along with me. I was forced by Edwin to put the property up for sale so that he could get his half-share of the money value of the flat when sold. All he wanted was his money, and nothing was going to stand in his way. But by March 2007 the estate agents handling the sale of the flat 74 Main Street Egremont had not received any offers. In late March my brother came round to the flat in Egremont and offered that he would buy out my half-share of the flat for £10,000. He would then allow me to stay in the flat until the end of 2008 without paying rent. The deal struck me as a little crazy from the outset. Why should I sell my half-share in the flat for £10,000 when the flat was worth £77,000. Why should I be expected to pay him rent for living in a property of which I was the joint heir. I was not aware at the time, but the recent events including my mother's death and the subsequent intimidation I had received from my brother had brought me to the brink of mental illness. By March 2007, I was having difficulty in thinking in any coherently logical, reasoned or rational manner. Confusion of thought by way of some mental disorder had started in me, but as the sufferer I was unaware and unable to recognise the symptoms at that time. I telephoned my brother and asked him to improve his offer but my brother insisted there was no other deal he would offer. I was quite mentally confused at this stage. He said any deal should be very good for him (owning the flat was going to be his pension). He would not budge on his offer of £10,000 and I felt too ill to argue with him. I was beginning to be afflicted by thoughts of suicide. By this stage of my mental decline I just wanted for the whole affair to be over and done with. I was mentally ill.
On or about 1st April 2007 a Contract arrived by post from my brother's solicitors Bleasdale & Co (60A). On reading the contract, I remember my reaction was one of dismay. I left the contract unsigned in its envelope on the hall-way floor for about four days, hoping I would not have to deal with it. At this time, I had taken to my bed for most of the day (I was now suffering from Clinical Depression). I knew the Contract was against my interests and I remember thinking that rather than sign it I might as well kill myself. In the Contract drawn up by Edwin's solicitors it stated that he would pay me £10,000 for my half share of the flat.
I had no legal advice of my own.
On 7th April 2007, feeling that I had no alternative I took an overdose of the prescribed pain-killer Cocodamol. The Cocodamol painkillers had been prescribed by Dr Bewick for my back-pain from which I had been suffering, and were of a high dosage which was prescription only. I took about 60 of these Cocodamol pills over a period of about an hour during the run up to mid-night. I was also taking the drug Acitretin prescribed by my dermatologist Dr Cox at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle. Acitretin is a retinoid drug and places a burden on the patient's liver. I reckoned the combination of Acitretin and Cocodamol pills in large quantity should finish me off. I wanted to end it all. It should be obvious that at this point I was quite clearly disordered mentally.
After taking the overdose I lay ill in bed in the flat at Egremont for 36 hours. But after this time I realised I was not going to die and I admitted myself into the A&E Department at the West Cumberland Hospital on the morning of 9th April 2007. I was administered the standard treatment for overdose cases and I was moved on to the wards of the main hospital. I remained there for the next five days and I remember being attached to various drips and I remember giving regular blood samples. Over this time my liver became "deranged". Whilst in hospital, I was assessed by psychiatric nurses and then by the Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Jalawalalal who said I would need to remain in the care of the Psychiatric Department upon release from hospital, and that my liver would need to be given time to recover. Dr Jalawalalal told me that in his opinion I had been mentally unwell and undiagnosed for some considerable time.
The doctors, especially Dr Usman, would have preferred me to stay longer in hospital where I could be monitored further, but I became nervous at the passage of time and the approach of the deadline set by my brother's solicitors Bleasdale & Co for the signing of the Contract. I was aware that I was still confused in thought. At my request, and against doctor's advice, I discharged myself from hospital on Saturday 14th April 2007. Although it was I myself who had asked to be discharged, I felt unsafe being out of hospital. I knew the Contract drawn up by my brother's solicitors was waiting for me at home. Nevertheless, my flat in Egremont was to become my sanctuary from which I became reluctant to venture outside. I retreated into a shell. On leaving the hospital, the CRISIS mental health team from the hospital immediately took over my care. The nurses of the CRISIS team either visited or phoned me at my flat every day subsequent to my discharge from hospital. Because I was still ill, I tried to make them stay away. They were concerned that I would make another attempt on my life. On 16th April I asked them to discharge me from their care. I continued to be suicidal but I just wanted to get rid of the CRISIS people and be left alone. My medical records show that I was considered at high risk of further harming myself.
On the following Thursday, I took the bus into Whitehaven in order to visit my brother’s solicitors Bleasdale & Co and discuss the Contract. I was in a state of mental turmoil whilst in the town centre of Whitehaven. I now recognise I was in a state of advanced mental illness. My brother phoned me on my mobile while I was standing outside the library in Whitehaven and he demanded why I had still not gone to the solicitors to sign the Contract. I was intimidated by his phone call and I told him I was on the way. Clearly my brother couldn't wait for the moment when I signed the contract. I entered the offices of my brother's solicitors on Scotch Street. I was aware that I was about to do something very stupid, but all I wanted was for it all to be over, and that then I could go back home to bed where I would be safe. These are classic indications for the mental illness I was suffering.
In the offices of Bleasdales solicitors, I explained to my brother's solicitor, Mr Blenkiron, that I had no legal advisor and that I had just been released days earlier from hospital after having taken an overdose in a suicide attempt. I told him I was being pressured into signing the Contract. He looked down at the desk and said nothing. I told Mr Blenkiron that if I were to sign the contract prepared by them at my brother's request then I felt I would be signing away my inheritance. I remember feeling that I must have looked to be in a fairly pathetic state, I think snot was running from my nose. I was mentally ill. He said I should go outside and take a walk. I wanted advice but he said nothing. I did take a break outside but felt even worse emotionally.
I went back in to Bleasdales. I asked to see Mr Blenkiron, but he had become unavailable. Instead, there was one of the firm's typing secretaries, who, as I remember, seemed to be grinning at me and on the brink of falling about in laughter at me. She presented me with documents to sign. It was a copy of the Contract, which I signed, and I also signed some Land Registry forms which were put before me, transferring the Egremont flat to my brother. The whole experience was unpleasant but my mood had become fatalistic. I asked the secretary at Bleasdales if she would send me a copy of the Contract which I had just signed.
Immediately afterwards, I left the offices of Bleasdales and in the open air I felt so relieved I was euphoric. I went back to Egremont, locked the door and went back to the safety of my bed. This emotional state lasted for several hours until something of what I had done dawned on me, but it was all too complex for me to handle. I felt ashamed of myself, that I had capitulated to my brother's bullying. I had been tricked by my brother into settling for a very bad deal. I had been taken advantage of by my brother when I was mentally ill. I wondered what my neighbours would think if they got to know what a clown I had been.
A cheque for £10,000 drawn on a Bleasdale & Co's account and dated 2nd May 2007 duly arrived (60A) by post, and was accompanied by a photocopy of the Contract dated 19th April 2007 signed by my brother (60B).
My mental state continued to deteriorate and by May 2007 I felt so paralysed by depression that I could no longer make the bus journey from Egremont to Whitehaven. I was reluctant to leave the flat or go out in public. I strangely became a non-person in the world of official bureaucracy, with no credits or entries into the National Insurance system made under my name and number. I was not to receive help in order to re-enter and to re-join the system until 01/06/2008.
On 17th July 2007 I settled my mother's Estate's tax liability of £310.98 for the tax year 2005/2006 at the Inland Revenue offices at Tangier Street in Whitehaven (62A). I wrote a cheque drawn on my RBS account. Despite the Contract drawn up by my brother's solicitors stipulating that my brother would attend to the Estate's tax liability as part of the contract, my brother immediately reneged on this agreement and told me over the phone I was going to "fucking pay it”. He had already obtained title to the flat by this stage. I was too ill to argue and so I caved in to his bullying. Confirmation of payment of £310.98 is given in the letter from HM Revenue & Customs dated 26/10/2009 (62B & 62C). The estate's liability for tax for the year 2006-07 was entered as a nil charge.
My mental illness continued. In July 2007 I attempted to suffocate myself and also attempted to stab myself with a screwdriver and kitchen knives. I also rigged up an electrocution device from bare wire which I went so far as to attach to my feet and arms and plug in at the electric socket. I visited my G.P. Dr Michael Bewick who referred me again to the CRISIS Team on 18th July 2007. Nurse Tony Walker arrived at my flat in Egremont with Staff Psychiatrist SHO Dr Ogundipe who diagnosed me with Clinical Depression and I was prescribed Citalopram anti-depressant. I received home visits from the CRISIS Team until 3rd August 2007 when I was handed over into the care of Community Psychiatric Nurse Rodney Burns. My CPN visited every fortnight. I stopped taking anti-depressants in October 2007. I asked to be discharged from CPN care in the week before Christmas 2007, although I was still unwell.
My state of depression continued and on 1st June 2008 I tried to hang myself in the bathroom of the flat. I knotted a neck-tie to a hefty jumbo-size screw-driver with a noose tied into its other end. I jammed the screw-driver into the hatch to the attic loft. Balancing on a chair I put my head and neck into the noose and after a few minutes contemplation I kicked the chair from under me. I dropped with the noose. My weight broke the tie at a point mid-way along its length with a jolt. After the snatch and then break in the material of the neck-tie, I fell hard onto the floor and I remained alive with a very sore neck. I became further consumed by depression, and saw no reason to continue living. It is only narrowly that I avoided killing myself on this day.
I went down to the living room of the flat and lay on the settee thinking what I could do next. I phoned my Community Psychiatric Nurse. The next day on 2nd June 2008 my CPN Rodney Burn resumed individual care of me. He visited me at the flat, and he patiently listened to me. Later in the week he drove me to visit Dr Peter Winterbottom at Beech House Surgery in Egremont. Rodney accompanied me into the consultation. I was put on anti-depressants and Dr Winterbottom proposed a program of care including regular return visits to his surgery together with on-going visits from my CPN.
On 1st June 2008 I had tried to hang myself. This was what part of what is popularly known as a "mental breakdown". Having failed narrowly to kill myself, my CPN, Rodney Burns, took me to the doctor's. Dr Winterbottom, then of Beech House Surgery in Egremont, was to become my G.P. of care. From the point he saw me first in June 2008 and later throughout 2008 and into 2009, he witnessed my low points of clinical depression and the slow initial stages of medication.
Dr Winterbottom has provided a letter of witness describing his care of the patient Nelson W Sharpe (66A).
Throughout 2008, my lifestyle was very poor. The idea of going to work was an impossibility. Owing to depression I didn’t shave and wandered around the flat with a huge beard, looking like Rasputin. When I ventured out on to the streets of Egremont I must have presented a quite eccentric sight. My gums bled because I did not brush my teeth for long periods, three months on end, and I didn’t wash myself or my clothes. I stopped watching television. I did not touch alcohol - I had not consumed alcohol since my stomach bleed in August 2006. I did not cook for myself and relied on take-away food, which resulted in weight gain. I felt and looked as if I had aged 10 years. I spent most of my time depressed in bed listening to the radio for days on end, in something akin to a catatonic state. I was daily given to suicidal thoughts. I was to remain on anti-depressant medication for the rest of 2008.
On 11th June 2008 Mrs Gillian Percival of Copeland Borough Council came round to the flat in Egremont to fill in the appropriate paper work for me in respect of Council Tax. I was incapable of filling out the relevant forms myself. Confirmation of this visit by Mrs Gillian Percival is provided in the letter from Copeland Borough Council (68A).
Also, my CPN Rodney encouraged me to go into Whitehaven to the Job Centre at Catherine Street where he arranged for me to be taken under the personal attention of Jackie Knopwood, who as my Personal Adviser at the Job Centre was able to guide me through the process of applying for Income Support, and getting credits to my National Insurance contributions record re-started. My claim for Income Support was approved (69A). The support of Jackie Knopwood at the Job Centre was to remain invaluable throughout 2008 and 2009, as a source of moral support. Throughout this period my CPN Rodney maintained regular fortnightly contact with me, even though his own health was not good.