'We will never know what truly happened': Family's agony as dad dies two years after being punched
05.04.2022 - 22:09
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A dad with a bipolar disorder died in hospital two years after he was punched during a row, an inquest heard. Paul Stewart, 53, never regained consciousness after he was hit by his neighbour's boyfriend who said he acted in self-defence. Mr Stewart, from Prestwich, suffered the devastating injury on his son's 20th birthday in May 2017 and remained in hospital in a 'minimally conscious state' until his death in June 2019.
Now a coroner, who criticised the evidence of the man who inflicted the injury as well as the police investigation, has recorded an open verdict following an inquest, finding there was not enough evidence to support an unlawful killing conclusion. Mr Stewart's distraught family described their devastating five-year ordeal and said: "We will never know what truly happened." Paul, a joiner, had not been able to work since being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a condition which led to his admission to a psychiatric hospital under the Mental Health Act on several occasions, the inquest was told.
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His family told Rochdale Coroners' Court the condition made Paul reclusive on some occasions and 'manic and elated' on others. The inquest heard about a row between Paul near his home on Leach Street and Richard Garrick, the boyfriend of Paul's next-door neighbour Jenny Boardman, on May 17, 2017.
Mr Stewart was taken to hospital with a serious head injury but never recovered - he died at The Priory Highbank, a brain injury clinic in Bury, on June 4, 2019. The inquest heard he was never able to give police an account of what happened on the night of the argument.
Senior North Manchester Coroner Joanne Kearsley ruled the
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