A prisoner on day release from a Suffolk prison killed himself on a busy dual carriageway, an inquest jury has concluded

Carl Samuel, a 22-year-old musician from Dagenham in Essex, died on the A14 when he was hit by a lorry near Levington in january 2011.

At the time of his death he had been an inmate at Hollesley Bay prison and was on day release.

After going out with friends Mr Samuel was being driven back to the prison by partner Carla Fuller when he told her to stop in a layby on the dual carriageway because he did not want to go back.

While at the side of the A14 Mr Samuel was said to have thrown Ms Fuller to the floor after she became concerned he might kill himself.

He then “leapt like a star jump” into the path of a lorry travelling on the carriageway.

He had earlier tried to open a security door on the eighth floor of a multi-storey car park but had failed, before telling Ms Fuller he was “going to jump off”.

The pair had also argued after Mr Samuel expressed fears he may not be able to live up to his partner’s expectations and had discussed a letter he had written after Ms Fuller was unable to visit him in prison the previous weekend. Following this and up to his death Mr Samuel was said to have become very quiet.

Coroner Peter Dean said over the course of the two-week inquest at IP City Centre in Ipswich the jurors had heard “very moving family background statements” and also “the impact of his loss” on them.

He also spoke of Ms Fuller’s frustration, from her own evidence, that she “at that time she couldn’t do anything” to help with the problems he felt he was facing.

The court also heard how there had been a suggestion Mr Samuel had been the subject of racial abuse while in Hollesley Bay, although Ms Fuller said he had never mentioned this and would have expected him to have done so if it had been an issue.

She added he had been very concerned while in prison about the risk status assigned to him and had complained about it.

Returning their verdict of suicide after just over three hours of deliberations, the jurors also said they did not feel potential racial abuse played any part in Mr Samuel’s decision to take his own life but that the argument with Ms Fuller had done.

However they could not say whether the concern about his risk status was an influence on the decision.

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