Inquest calls for change in law

A JURY in the inquest of a man who left a suicide note full of religious references recommended a change in the law that would have allowed his family to be informed of his mental state.

The jurors also asked the coroner to write to a self-styled Christian “church” of which the deceased was a member, relaying his family’s concerns about its influence on him. The International Church of Christ was invited to attend the inquest yesterday but no representative turned up.

Niall MacMahon, a 40-year-old married man and university graduate, died when he threw himself in front of the Dublin to Belfast train on March 2 last year, four days after being discharged from a psychiatric ward in a Dublin hospital.