Security guard never recovered from attack

Keith Williamson never recovered from an attack at Tesco Rochdale.

A coroner has ruled that a security guard took his own life after suffering psychological trauma following a vicious attack.

Keith Williamson (35) never recovered from the beating in which he was punched, kicked, chased with a machete and threatened with a gun outside Rochdale’s Tesco store on 8 May 2006.

He was found hanged with his wrists slashed in his Bower Street home in Oldham on 12 October that year.

On the third day of his inquest at Oldham Magistrates’ Court yesterday, the court heard how Mr Williamson’s role at G4 Securicor usually involved working on cash-in-transit deliveries, but his bosses had asked him to do a cash machine run on the day of the attack.

He was unhappy about going out on the job because he hadn’t been trained in that role. But a series of violent attacks on security workers had left the firm short-staffed in that area.

On the day of the attack, Mr Williamson had expected to be involved in surveillance work, but it was not until he arrived at work that he was told that he would have to fill in for a colleague in the cash machine department who had broken down in tears and refused to go out.

Service manager Nicky Latham told Mr Williamson he would be suspended if he did not fulfil his contractual obligations and arranged for a 20-minute training session before he was sent out.

Following the incident, an initial report from the firm’s trauma specialists deemed Mr Williamson fit to return to work.

But they later assessed him as unfit to work, although this was not recorded on the reports.

Mr Williamson’s GP Dr Saphal Kanti Pal, from the Park’s Medical Practice in Royton, had in the meantime diagnosed stress and post traumatic stress disorder and signed him off work.

Recording a narrative verdict, Oldham coroner Simon Nelson said: “This case has involved deception, misapprehensions and false expectations.

“Mr Williamson intended to take his own life while suffering from the psychological trauma of an unlawful attack.

“I don’t believe he would have acted as he did were it not for the trauma, as he had no history of depression or self-harm.”

Mr Nelson heard that soon after Mr Williamson’s return to work on 8 August, a welfare meeting took place to discuss grievances he had lodged regarding the way he was spoken to on the day of the attack, his belief that he had not been given adequate training and the withdrawal of his sick pay.

During the meeting, site operations manager, Alan Robertson, offered formal apologies for the way Mr Williamson had been spoken to and the training issue and felt that the issue had been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. G4 Securicor bosses told the court that 20-30 minutes of training was standard and would have been adequate, since the role Mr Williamson was undertaking that day was very similar to the job he normally did.

But Mr Robertson admitted few staff liked doing cash machine work as it was more dangerous.

The court also heard that Mr Williamson was preparing to lodge fresh grievances against the company in the weeks before his death as he felt he was being bullied.

“I don’t believe that there was any actual incident of bullying or unlawful actions on the part of any employee of the company,” added the coroner.

Mr Williamson’s family said: “Keith was cherished by all his friends and family. He is deeply missed.”