Carlisle man arrested on suspicion of murdering mum took his own life

Former electrician Roland Todd, 63, who failed to report the death of his 93-year-old mum Joyce at their Aglionby Street home for several weeks, was initially arrested on suspicion of preventing her "lawful burial".

But he was rearrested on suspicion of murder after a pathologist confirmed that Mrs Todd died from “blunt force trauma” to her sternum. In a note found next to his body, he denied hurting his mother, saying he loved her.

The circumstances of the tragedy were revealed during a two-hour inquest presided over by Cumbria’s Assistant Coroner Dr Nicholas Shaw.

The court heard that Mr Todd reported his mother’s death to staff at Carlisle’s Grosvenor House Surgery in Warwick Square shortly before 1pm on May 19, 2020, telling the staff there she had passed away several weeks earlier.

Due to those circumstances, police were informed, and Mr Todd was arrested. The inquest heard a written statement from Detective Constable Laura Cartner. She confirmed that the pensioner’s body was found on the living room floor, fully clothed.

Before he was interviewed, Mr Todd was checked over by a custody suite nurse and given a thorough risk assessment. His lawyer Sara Budniak provided a detailed statement for the hearing, saying he was his mother’s sole carer.

Their Aglionby Street home was in a poor state of repair, with rising damp.

Miss Budniak said: “He was very open and spoke in detail about their lives. He denied any type of criminal conduct in respect of his mum’s care and spoke of her fondly not just as his mother, but also as his best friend.

“It was apparent that they were very close.”

The inquest heard that when Mr Todd’s father had died a several years earlier, he refused to let the undertaker remove the body until the day of the funeral. He said he dealt with his mother’s body in the same way.

A nurse and mental health worker declared Mr Todd fit to be detained for questioning, but it was suggested he should be accompanied by an "appropriate adult" as well as his lawyer and this happened.

In his first two interview he gave accounts of what happened to his mother, though in his final interview, after the cause of death was confirmed, Mr Todd gave no comment responses to the police's questions. 

In her statement, Miss Budniak said Mr Todd spoke of his life with his mother, saying they bot slept on the ground floor as she was unable to climb the stairs.

“He was very upset about the police seeing his mum,” said the lawyer.

“He was in denial about the death and at the time he thought he was doing everything right.” The lawyer outlined how she was then updated with the results of a postmortem carried out by the Home Office pathologist Dr Alison Armour.

She identified “blunt force trauma” of the sternum as the cause of death, confirming that Mrs Todd had sustained a number of broken ribs. Miss Budniak said Mr Todd had told her he would on occasion help his mum to climb the stairs.

“He said his mum was unsteady on her feet and incredibly frail,” said Miss Budniak. He had wondered if she may have stumbled on the stairs, or knocked herself against the bannisters, though he could not confirm this.

“He maintained he was not guilty of causing any type of harm to his mother,” said the lawyer. After he was reinterviewed by the police, Mr Todd told Miss Budniak that there was no place he wished to go other than to his home.

The inquest was told that police carried out various risk assessments of the defendant after reinterviewing him before deciding to release him on police bail, with a condition that he report to the city’s police HQ on Saturday, May 23.

The officer who gave him a lift to his home told him he could get in touch at any point if he had any questions about the investigation. When he failed to attend, police were sent to his home to conduct a welfare check but there was no response to their knocking on the door.

At mid-day, police forced entry to the house and found Mr Todd dead in the living room. He had taken his own life and death was confirmed at 12.39pm. The officers who found him also found a note near to his body.

In it, Mr Todd said that he loved his mother and would never have caused her harm. He spoke of feeling hurt that anybody could believe he may have killed his mother. Dr Shaw said that toxicology tests confirmed that at the time of his death, Mr Todd had consumed enough alcohol to be equivalent of three times the drink driving limit.

The inquest also heard background information about Mr Todd from his brother Michael and one of his long-term friends. A time-served electrician, Mr Todd grew up in Carlisle but later lived in Nottingham with his mother.

They had returned to Carlisle in 2005.

Though he had some long-term relationships, he had never married or had children. Once a keyboard player in a band, he had an extraordinary knowledge of music and had visited Graceland because he was fan of Elvis Presley.

Dr Shaw also outlined the medical evidence and history of Mr Todd, who very rarely went to the doctor. He had suffered a depressive episode in 2007 and again in 2010, and was prescribed antidepressant medication.

As he opened the inquest, Dr Shaw pointed out that Mr Todd’s death was tied up with the passing of his mother but the circumstances of her death would be the subject of a separate inquest in the autumn.

Giving his conclusion, Dr Shaw said it was clear that Mr Todd had not acted as she should have done following the death of his mother and the concerns raised by this and the postmortem had led to his arrest.

The coroner said he was satisfied that the assessments made of Mr Todd before his release had been satisfactory and there was no concerns about him, including from his lawyer on the Friday before he was found dead.

“The postmortem examination suggests he had a significant amount of alcohol in his system and it was alluded that he took alcohol on occasion,” said Dr Shaw. “I would suspect he would be somewhat disinhibited by the level of alcohol.”

The note he had left meant there could be no doubt that Mr Todd intended to take his own life and therefore the conclusion was his death was due to suicide, said Dr Shaw. He offered his sympathy to Mr Todd’s brother, who listened to the hearing remotely via a live telephone link to the hearing.

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