Kerri-Anne Donaldson was found dead at her home in Farnborough, Hampshire, in 2023
Britain’s Got Talent star Ms Donaldson took her own life three days after she was arrested on suspicion of a sexual offence.
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PA
A Britain’s Got Talent dancer died of suicide three days after she was arrested on suspicion of “child sex offending”, a coroner has ruled.
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 the “sexual” offence, which she denied.
She was then reported missing and was found at a hotel in Woking, Surrey, and was admitted to St Peter’s Hospital, Surrey, having taken an overdose.
Ms Donaldson was placed under a “high risk care plan” on June 5 but she was released from hospital on June 6 into the care of a home treatment team after she was assessed to have “settled”.
She was found hanged at her home the following morning.
Coroner Jason Pegg said he was recording a conclusion of suicide for Ms Donaldson.
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Kerri-Anne Donaldson was found dead at her home in 2023.
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She was arrested on June 4 and questioned at a police station about the alleged offence, which she denied.
She was later reported missing but found at a Travelodge hotel in Woking, Surrey, and taken to hospital following an overdose.
She was discharged on June 6 but was found dead at her home the following day by her sister Cara, who discovered a note at the top of the stairs urging her to call 999 and not to come in.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Martin Williams was one of three mental health professionals who assessed Ms Donaldson prior to her release from St Peter’s Hospital in Surrey.
Dr Williams told the inquest that she had presented as suffering from an “acute adjustment reaction” to her arrest.
He said that she was assessed on June 6 to have changed her position from the previous evening, when a psychiatric liaison nurse had deemed her to be of “high and imminent risk of suicide” and rated her risk as level ten out of ten.
Dr Williams said that his assessment had taken account of this, but added that it was a “dynamic process.”
He said: “It struck me how warm and personable Kerri-Anne was, it struck me she was open, she was receptive, she was showing emotions appropriate of what she was facing.
“We considered the possibility she was masking a higher level of risk than she was saying, but all the indications were that she was settling and the risk was markedly reduced from the previous day.”
Kerri-Anne Donaldson (fourth from left) performed on BGT in 2014 as part of dance group Kings and Queens. Pic.
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Shutterstock
He told the hearing that Ms Donaldson was “open to speaking to professionals in whatever form that may take,” and she was referred to the home treatment team prior to her being allowed to be discharged from hospital.
Dr Williams said that Ms Donaldson had refused to disclose the nature of the offence she was accused of, but she had told him that she no longer believed she was “definitely going to go to prison.”
He said: “She had shifted from a position of quite stressed and downbeat about the police involvement to where she felt much more confident.”
Dr Williams said Ms Donaldson has said that she “wanted to take her own legal advice and wanted to fight the case.”
The coroners court in Winchester, Hampshire, where the inquest is taking place.
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Alamy
He added: “She believed she had a good case in putting together a defence to whatever the arrest was for, she believed she had a good case.
“She expressed a view on the day of the assessment she was no longer so worried about going to prison.”
Detective Chief Superintendent McConnell said that the officer who carried out an enhanced risk assessment of Ms Donaldson while she was in hospital had acted “appropriately” by not revealing to medical staff the nature of the offence she had been arrested for.
She said that the form was used by officers to assess the mental health of suspects of certain offences including what she described for Ms Donaldson’s case as ‘child sex offending.”
Ms McConnell said that the assessment was not designed for use by response officers, such as those attending the hospital with Ms Donaldson, but they had probably used it as a “belt and braces” approach.
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