Lawyer who fell to his death from Tate Modern was driven mad by cannabis

12 April 2012

A young lawyer who fell to his death from the top floor of the Tate Modern had undergone years of treatment for cannabis-induced mental illness, an inquest heard.

Oxford-educated Matthew Courtney, the 27-year-old son of former World Cup referee George Courtney, had been working up to 14 hours a day at a top City law firm in the run-up to his death.

The day before, Mr Courtney had told his psychiatrist that he was worried his long hours were triggering a relapse of manic depression, for which he had been receiving treatment for seven years.

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Tragedy: Matthew Courtney with his father, World Cup referee George Courtney. The lawyer died after falling from the seventh floor of Tate Modern

After finishing work at 8.30pm on Friday, February 9, Mr Courtney had gone to the Thames-side art gallery and was using his BlackBerry wireless phone on the seventh floor when he fell to his death.

Yesterday's hearing at Southwark Coroner's Court was told it may have been an accident and that he had sat on a banister without realising there was a gap between it and the wall.

But the coroner said to do so would have been "foolish", adding that there was evidence Mr Courtney had been suicidal at the time.

An only child who grew up in Spennymoor, County Durham, Mr Courtney achieved straight A-stars at GCSE and six As at A-level at the £4,000-a-term Durham School before reading law at Christ Church College, Oxford.

A talented linguist and musician, he had also been a member of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

But in 1999, after his drink was apparently spiked, Mr Courtney was taken to a psychiatric hospital and had to miss two terms of his degree.

A report by his GP, Dr Maher Shakarachi, to yesterday's inquest revealed he had been suffering from bi-polar affective disorder – manic depression – which "may have been triggered by cannabis use".

Mr Courtney's father told the hearing it had been "a traumatic time" for his son and the start of "a long and sometimes troubled journey back to mental health".

In 2002 Mr Courtney appeared to have recovered and won a job at top city law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he was regarded as "highly promising". By last year he was no longer on medication.

That Christmas he spoke to his parents, George, who refereed at the 1986 and 1990 World Cup finals, and Margaret, a 59-year-old headmistress, about the long hours he was working.

Mr Courtney, 65, who described his son as "an absolute joy", told the hearing: "We were concerned about his current workload. But we thought he had the capacity to cope at the time."

The day before his death, Mr Courtney rang his psychiatrist, Dr Mike Bellew, saying he was worried that his hours – frequently from 8am to 10pm – and problems getting to sleep meant he was heading for a relapse.

The first policeman on the scene, Pc Matthew Wilkinson, said he thought Mr Courtney's death was an accident.

"I think he went to sit on the banister on the upper floor and I think he fell between the banister and the wall," he added.

However Southwark coroner John Sampson said: "There is no reason at all why anyone should sit on the banister of a staircase in a high place. It is quite a foolish thing to do."

He added that there was evidence Mr Courtney had been suicidal and that his mental health may have been under "significant stress" at work. In spite of this, he recorded a verdict of accidental death.

The case will add to growing fears about the effects of smoking cannabis, which is increasingly being linked to schizophrenia and other forms of mental illness. j.tozer@dailymail.co.uk

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