Suspended school worker car death

David Baines was found dead the day after his suspension in 2003

A school worker was found dead in a fume-filled car the day after being suspended from work, an inquest heard.

Support worker David Baines, 57, worked at St Christopher's School, Wrexham, with children with special needs.

His wife told the hearing he did not know why he had been suspended and was worried he was being accused of abuse.

He left a note saying, "Sorry it's got to be this way. I can't face another day wondering what or who? My head is exploding". The inquest continues.

The hearing in Flint heard how Mr Baines had taken a number of telephone calls from one pupil on a regular basis.

The 14-year-old had been feeling down and rang almost nightly and Mr Baines would talk to him to try to cheer him up.

His wife Jacqueline said that the calls were always above board.

But in October 2003 he was told he was being suspended.

He said he was worried someone was accusing him of child abuse and he could not deal with that.

Mrs Baines told the inquest that his initial reaction was that his suspension was linked to a boy the family had fostered but had later been sent to a secure unit.

Mr Baines was an education support worker at the Wrexham school

But it later emerged that it involved phone calls from another boy, who had been receiving educational support and was also in a secure unit.

Mr Baines told his wife on the day before his death: "You're not going to believe this - I've been suspended from school," Mrs Baines told the hearing.

He said he had been told it was nothing to do with the school but the police were involved.

Six months after his death, Mrs Baines received a letter from Wrexham council.

It said that her husband had been suspended because he was receiving telephone calls from a "particular young person" and that the calls contained breaches of confidentiality that crossed professional borders.

She told the hearing that if he had known the reason for his suspension he would still be here today.

Mr Baines' son Lee told the inquest that when he heard his father had been suspended he greeted the news with "disbelief".

His best friend Peter Clutton said that Mr Baines was "a bag of nerves" and said he was so upset he talked about suicide, which was totally against his character.