Dad jumped to his death months before birth of first child

An expectant father leapt to his death from the fourth floor of a multi-storey car park just months before the birth of his first child, an inquest heard.

Oliver Dinsdale, 23, had recently discovered a friend was pregnant with their baby when his body was found in a construction site next to The Peacocks Centre in Woking on November 10, 2018.

Surrey Coroners’ Court heard he had been acting strangely in the weeks leading up to his death, with his devastated mum Tracy Hayter describing how he appeared ‘paranoid and delusional’ but had not sought further help to address concerns over his mental health after being treated for depression in 2017.

Oliver, a twin who had worked as a barman at a Bill’s restaurant until October of that year, was spotted looking ‘agitated’ on CCTV footage after entering the car park around an hour before he was found dead.

It showed him climbing onto a wall and disappearing over the other side at 11.23pm. A security guard at the shopping centre was first on the scene after someone reported having seen a body on Victoria Way nearby.

Paramedics rushed there but Oliver was pronounced dead at 12.33am the following morning. A post-mortem examination concluded he died from multiple injuries sustained in the fall. Toxicology reports noted the presence of cannabis and alcohol in his blood, but the latter was below the legal driving limit.

Assistant Coroner Caroline Topping said she was ‘not satisfied at the time he jumped that he intended to kill himself’ and recorded a narrative verdict.

She said: ‘Oliver Dinsdale was born in Chertsey but had drifted apart from his family, taking drugs and causing problems with other family members. He had been treated for depression in 2017.

‘On November 9, 2018, he entered The Peacocks shopping centre car park and was captured on CCTV pacing up and down before climbing on the wall and disappearing from view. His body was found immediately below.

‘In the weeks prior to this incident, Oliver had stopped work and had presented to his mother as being paranoid and delusional. He had not sought any assistance with his mental health concerns and he was not having any counselling at the time.

‘When police searched they did not find anything indicating an intention to take his own life. The cause of his death was multiple injuries.

‘His mother said he was behaving oddly but she thought he had been taking Class A drugs, not suffering from a mental illness.

‘I am not satisfied at the time he jumped that he intended to kill himself.’

The inquest heard that his friend gave birth to a baby boy on June 12 last year with the support of his family.

He was given the middle name of Oliver after his father.

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