A 26-year-old dad died after a bitter custody battle with his wife and mother of their 5-year-old daughter.
Christopher Brown, from Blackpool, England, had been taking medication for his PTSD and stopped taking it in October last year, according to his stepfather, as reported by the Daily Mail.
He and his wife, who Christopher was separated from, were in the middle of a custody battle over their daughter and he had been given restricted visitation rights.
He was found hanging on March 26 at his home in Blackpool, the Daily Mail reports.
Posted by Chris Brown on Sunday, December 9, 2018
Christopher was granted visitation rights but claimed it wasn’t enough so tried to get a new ruling in a family court.
His wife had been granted custody and had moved 150 miles away with their daughter.
A suicide note was found in the bedroom of his mother and stepfather’s house where he was staying.
Christopher was due to appear in court for allegedly breaking a court order banning him from contacting the mother, who he had separated from in 2014. Christopher suffered from PSTD and was under medication, but he had no problems with alcohol or drugs.
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An emotional social media post from Christopher just after Christmas read: “Another year another smile.. not for me just for a while .. Tears fall …I can take some more …heart ache and heart break to see your smile just for a while.. I’ll fight for the delight of your comforting touch …soul by soul …tear by tear …next year we will smile with out fear
“I love you baby girl. Daddy misses you so much.”
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Brown’s stepfather Anthony Cummings said that Christopher only had supervised visits through his mom.
“But the contact with the daughter that was what I think was his main sources for what happened. He started his own business but work was on and off,” he added.
Christopher was found hanging in a caravan in the garden of the home he shared with his mom and stepfather. Christopher had written a ‘moving’ suicide note, which he left in his bedroom, according to the police.
Speaking about the day he was found dead, Cummings told Daily Mail:
“I didn’t think he would take his own life. There were times when he was really happy and there were other times when he was down. But the day before and the week before there were no signs whatsoever,” his stepfather added.
A coroner’s office report said: “Christopher Brown had previously been diagnosed with PTSD. He had attempted to commit suicide on a number of occasions in the past. He had been prescribed antidepressants.”
Posted by Chris Brown on Sunday, February 3, 2019
“He did say that he had been struggling with his mental health for a number of years since 2011. He had ongoing issues in relation to access to his daughter and that had upset him. He said despite the court ruling he wasn’t always seeing his daughter and he found that distressing. In relation to the events described he did make an attempt to take his own life by walking into the sea, but he had been drinking and he remembers that he came out of the sea on his own,” Louise Barr, a member of the mental health liaison team said.
Suicide is a major health issue, especially among young men. September is National Suicide Prevention Month, so now is as good a time as any to talk about it.
This is such a heartbreaking story and so sad that a little girl was in the middle of all of this.
Please share to pay tribute to the memory of Christopher Brown and may his daughter grow up knowing how much she was loved by her daddy.
