Cornwall pub landlord died facing manslaughter inquiry

A pub landlord being investigated on suspicion of manslaughter died from a drugs overdose in his cell, an inquest has heard.

Police were about to question Jerome Dangar over the death of Hope Barden, 21, who died of asphyxiation while Dangar watched on the internet in 2018.

An inquest jury in Exeter, Devon, was told Dangar, 45, died in Dartmoor Prison in April 2019.

Dangar, from Tintagel, Cornwall, never faced the manslaughter charge.

The jury recorded a suicide conclusion after an eight-day long inquest at Exeter Coroner's Court.

Senior Devon coroner Philip Spinney told the jury that Dangar was transferred to Dartmoor Prison a few days after he was jailed at Truro Crown Court in 2019.

He had admitted nine charges of possessing extreme pornography of acts that portrayed threatening a person's life and endangering genitals.

He was found dead in his cell the day before he was due to be re-interviewed by Staffordshire Police about the manslaughter of Ms Barden, who was from Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.

At Ms Barden's inquest, a conclusion of unlawful killing was recorded.

Her inquest heard she had been earning extra money working in the online adult industry.

Staffordshire Police said it had submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider charging Dangar with manslaughter over the death of Ms Barden.

Officers said it was proved Dangar was online while she died on 15 March 2018, and there was no attempt to raise any emergency response to the danger he had put her in.

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