Grant Townsend, 26, was known in the town of Starella Grove, west of Hull, England, as an “adorable rascal who always smiled,” but behind that smile was a troubled mind.
Townsend suffered from mental health problems for much of his life, but those problems were exacerbated in 2017, when he was falsely accused of rape. He was eventually acquitted, but his mother, Keely Gillbey, told investigators that he feared “the rapist title would never go away”.
Hull Coroner’s Court conducted an investigation into Townsend’s death, determining that he committed suicide and citing his struggle to overcome false allegations of rape against him. Gillbey told investigators that after being accused, Townsend “found it difficult to leave the house”, but went on to tell her that he was fine and did not need any mental health support, the Daily Mail reported. Gillbey said she found a suicide note written by Townsend before her death that included a line where “he claimed his innocence”, but that she never discussed the note with her son. She, however, insisted that he must know that she found the note when he threw away some pills he found in Townsend’s room.
After that incident, Mail reported, Townsend found a girlfriend and moved in together. Gillbey said that “they had problems” and eventually broke up. Townsend struggled to find a job after the false claims, which damaged the relationship. Townsend was expelled from the house he shared with his wife and moved back in with his mother.
“The day he came home, he cried and was barely able to get out and was sick of everything,” said Gillbey, according to Mail. She said that after her son returned, she would find him crying in the kitchen. She said she knew he was really struggling with everything that had happened and that he was “crying himself to sleep”.
The false claims were only the catalyst for what would have been a long history of traumatic incidents. Townsend was born in Kent, but his parents’ divorce caused him and his mother to move to Hull, where he was “bullied by his accent” in high school and “started hanging out with the wrong crowd,” his mother told Coroner’s Court. She also said that Townsend “found it difficult to understand and deal with knowing what her mother had been through”, referring to the abuse she had suffered in the past.
Another blow came when Townsend’s uncle died, Gillbey said.
“[L]because of his uncle Grant, after whom he was named, in a motorcycle accident 11 years ago – he took it very, very hard and that’s when I really noticed a fall in Grant, ”she told the court.
His mental health became “progressively worse”, however, after the false accusations.
“He was found not guilty – it took less than 10 minutes for everyone to come back with an innocent verdict,” his mother told the court, according to Mail. “But it affected Grant in a very, very big way, especially knowing what I had been through as a child. Being accused of it affected him a lot, it really did. I watched it deteriorate. “
Gillbey returned home to find that Townsend had committed suicide on June 6, 2020.
“He was an adorable rascal. Looking at him, getting to know him, you wouldn’t know there was something wrong, ”she said. “He always smiled when you saw him, he was always willing to laugh, he loved being close to his friends and his friends loved him being close to them.”
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