Coroner says not enough evidence to say why Catterick Garrison soldier died
Lance Corporal Bernard Mongan was not discovered for three weeks
An inquest has concluded into the death of a soldier who died at Catterick Garrison.
Father-of-three Lance Corporal Bernard Mongan, 33, was discovered on January 23 2020 in his bedroom at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire.
An inquest heard L/Cpl Mongan had “obviously been dead for some time” when he was found, and had last been seen around December 27.
A coroner previously heard the two most likely causes of his death were considered to be poisoning, after barbiturates were found in L/Cpl’s system, or a sudden abnormality of the heart, but a Home Office pathologist told the inquest he could not say which of these was the most likely.
Dr Nigel Cooper said: “I’ve thought about this long and hard but I just don’t think I can, I don’t think I have enough positive evidence to go in one direction or the other.”
At the conclusion of his inquest today (19 June) Coroner Jon Heath said he also could not say why Lance Corporal Mongan had died.
He concluded there were no evidence of any third party involved or suspicion circumstances at the scene of his death
He also said that on occasion officers in his chain of command spoke to him in a "manner that caused him distress." However, no new allegations of bullying had been made since September and his mental health appeared to have improved and he was continuing to work on his fitness and looking forward to his next deployment.
The coroner noted he had recently made donations to his friends suicide charity. He'd also told friends he was going to come off social media to protect his mental health.
But he said there was not enough evidence to say why he died and therefore recorded an open conclusion.
L/Cpl Mongan’s wife Beth Mongan said they had three daughters together and had separated by the time of his death but remained close.