The inquest into David Green’s death was heard in Newport yesterday (Tuesday 4th March).
It concluded that the founder of Ecoisland had taken his own life by hanging himself from an oak tree in the garden of his family home.
Insufficient evidence of criminal charges
In the Coroner’s Court it also emerged that the Police investigation, launched at the request of the Isle of Wight council, was concluded in February 2014, with the police deciding, “there is insufficient evidence to confirm that any criminal offences were committed.” They added, “No further suspects were identified and no further arrests were made.”
This was the first time it had been publicly declared as the Coroner, Caroline Sumeray, had requested that a police media statement not be issued until all the evidence had been heard at the Inquest first and a verdict reached in open court.
Hampshire Police tell us that the Green family was aware of this prior to the hearing.
Police: Money used to pay off company debts
During questioning by the police, about the allegations of the missing money, DC Lee Stewart told the court, David Green had said that ‘the funding had not been ringfenced, and had not been required to be so, and had been used to pay off the company’s other debts’, reported Wave105.
DC Stewart added of the council’s initial allegation, “It wasn’t factually incorrect, it was a misunderstanding, a misinterpretation.”
Criticism
Both the Isle of Wight council and the County Press came in for criticism at the trial.
The BBC reported that ‘Coroner Caroline Sumeray said the council released information about [David Green’s] arrest to the press prematurely. She asked the council to make a full investigation into how and why this happened.’
There was also some questioning of whether the council had been correct in accusing David Green of stealing, which as it says above, the police investigation came to nothing over.
[Detective Constable Lee Stewart, of Hampshire Police] said that the false allegations were that Mr Green had falsely stated that stages of the project had been completed in order to gain the next funding payment. But Mr Stewart said that this had been a “misinterpretation” of the spreadsheets provided by Mr Green to the council.
County Press
The CP reported that David Green’s wife, Patricia, ‘said his high-profile arrest on suspicion of fraud, reported on the front page of the County Press, had humiliated him and made him feel like a criminal.’
Referring to the report in the [County Press] of his arrest on suspicion of fraud, Mrs Green said: “He [David] was devastated, I think it was just the first negative thing that he had, it just threw him.
“He said: ‘I am not going to be able to walk down the road, I am going to be a pariah.’ We [the family] were saying: ‘It’s a small island, people soon forget.'”
Tip-off to CP led to arrest
The decision to arrest David Green was made by the police ‘after it became known that the Isle of Wight County Press newspaper had received information about the allegation and it was deemed necessary to question him in case an attempt was made to destroy any evidence once the matter was made public’, report The Guardian.
Mrs Green: “It won’t bring him back”
Recording a verdict of suicide, the Coroner said to Mr Green’s family: “This was cool, calm and rational and very distressing – and now horrendous for you to discover that he felt driven to this by the humiliation he felt because he was arrested, because he was interviewed, because of the allegation that was made that was incorrect, false, inaccurate”, report Wave105.
Wiping away tears, Mrs Green said: “It won’t bring him back.”
Our thoughts are with family and friends.
History of the case
Early October last year started a whirlwind of events that ended in David Green’s death.
- Late on the 1st, OnTheWight discovered that the Eco Island Partnership was moving to liquidation. The company owed nearly £400,000.
- Lunchtime on the 3rd, the Isle of Wight council issued a press release saying that they were referring Eco Island to the Police.
- Council director Stuart Love, announcing, “Having reviewed delivery of this project it would appear that approximately £115,000 of the £240,000 is unaccounted for and we have therefore referred this matter to the police to investigate.”
- Later that evening, Police announced that a man had been arrested in connection with the Eco Island investigation.
- The County Press took the unusual step of attaching David Green’s name to the arrest – despite the Police refusing to name the person when OnTheWight asked.
- The next day, Friday, the County Press ran ‘Police probe Ecoisland’ as top story on their front page, with the subhead of ‘Fraud arrest after company collapse’, with a photo of David Green.
- Three days later, tragically, David Green hanged himself.
Image: Ecoisland
