A dancer who appeared on Britain’s Got Talent died from hanging three days after she was arrested on suspicion of a sexual offence, an inquest has heard.
Kerri-Anne Donaldson, who reached the semi-final of the ITV show in 2014 as part of the dance group Kings and Queens, was found dead at her home in Farnborough, Hampshire, on June 7 2023.
An inquest held at Winchester was told the 38-year-old was arrested on June 4 and questioned at a police station about a “sexual” offence, which she denied.
After she was released, she failed to return home, leading her family to report her as a missing person before she was found at a Travelodge hotel in Woking, Surrey.
Her sister, Cara Donaldson, told the hearing that when she arrived there, Ms Donaldson was being taken to hospital in an ambulance having taken an overdose.
Cara said her sister had told an emergency doctor at St Peter’s Hospital in north Surrey that she had wanted to kill herself and added: “I just wanted to hug her.”
She added that when she drove her sister home on June 6, she had told her that she had made the decision to take her own life when she had left the police station.
She said they had not been given any care plan or advice on how to assist her sister when they left the hospital.
Cara said that she spent the evening with her sister and was reluctant to leave her alone, saying: “If you do anything, Kerri, that will always be on my shoulders.”
She added: “She joked ‘I am not going to do that’, so I left. One of the last messages was ‘Thanks for everything today’ and she gave a heart emoji, I just thought she was OK.”
Cara said when her sister did not answer the phone the next morning, she went round to her home and found a note at the top of the stairs which said: “Call 999, do not come in. I am sorry.”
Cara said she had asked her sister about the allegation and her sister had told her that she was not guilty and that it had “all been constructed”.
Describing her sister, she said: “Heart of gold, full of fun, brought happiness to life, especially mine, career-driven, adored her family, adored her friends, fantastic dance teacher, everyone loved her.”
She said her sister had been on television a few times and added: “Her main passion was to choreograph dancing.”
The inquest was told that a post-mortem examination gave a cause of death of hanging and it also found that she had non-fatal levels of medication in her blood which were consistent with an overdose.
The hearing continues.
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