Turner Prize judge Michael Stanley killed himself 'in his dinner suit while house sitting for colleague'

 
John Dunne @jhdunne13 February 2013

A Turner Prize judge hanged himself in a colleague’s garden while dressed in a dinner suit, an inquest heard today.

Michael Stanley, 37, had been struggling with “relationship and work issues” and suffered from depression.

The married father of three, who was director of the gallery Modern Art Oxford, took his own life in the early hours of Friday September 21 last year, Oxfordshire coroner Darren Salter said. Mr Stanley was discovered in a garden belonging to Verity Slater shortly after midday on the Friday.

In a statement Ms Slater, a gallery arts manager, said she had agreed to let Mr Stanley feed her cat and look after her house in Jericho, Oxford, while she was on holiday as he needed “a little bit of head space”.

Ms Slater said that when she gave him her keys he “seemed normal, a little tired but there was nothing unusual about his manner”. She added: “He was a private person. He didn’t share details about his private life. He liked to keep work and his personal life apart.”

Mr Stanley was one of the rising stars of the arts world and was on the panel for last year’s Turner Prize. He took up the directorship of Modern Art Oxford in 2009 and between 2004 and 2009 worked as director of Milton Keynes Gallery, where he was responsible for two Turner prize-nominated exhibitions by artists Phil Collins and Cathy Wilkes.

Mr Stanley’s widow, Carrie, whom he had been with for 20 years, said he had told her he had “needed some space away and moved to Verity’s house and I was supportive of this because I wanted him to get better”.

Mrs Stanley, who did not attend the inquest, made a statement after his death saying that he had suffered depression for the last two years.

He had seen a psychotherapist and been referred to a community mental health team. After returning from a Spanish holiday “it was as if his mind was in a different place,” Mr Stanley’s widow said.

Samaritans provide support to people in distress. They can be contacted on 08457 90 90 90 or by email: jo@samaritans.org.uk.

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