Pending 'Blue Magic' probe sparked suicide, inquest told

Millionaire Canterbury horse owner John Howard Seaton killed himself while suffering depression triggered by a pending prosecution for horse doping, a coroner's inquest in Christchurch heard yesterday.

Mr Seaton, 55, a farmer and businessman, was found dead at his property at Aylesbury, 28km west of Christchurch, on November 15, 2004.

Coroner Richard McElrea heard that Mr Seaton had been treated for severe depression in the months before his death and attempted suicide twice previously.

Mr Seaton, a multi-millionaire Canterbury stock dealer and investor, was notified just four days before his death that Harness Racing New Zealand was laying three charges relating to his alleged use of a banned substance known as "blue magic".

Mr Seaton was jointly charged with his trainer Mark Purdon, who last August admitted administering a substance to the horse Light and Sound in 2004, and was fined $15,000 by the Judicial Control Authority and banned from working in the industry for four months.

Christchurch consultant psychiatrist Gideon Dubow told the inquest that Mr Seaton was referred to psychiatric emergency services in June 2004 after making an attempt on his life.

He was diagnosed as having symptoms of "severe depression with agitation".

Dr Dubow said there was evidence also that Mr Seaton had been mildly depressed since February 2004.

"His acute deterioration was related to allegations that either he or others involved in the training of his horses were involved in horse doping," Dr Dubow said.

Dr Dubow told police investigating Mr Seaton's death that Mr Seaton had been clearly depressed "in the context of significant stresses" and there was "reasonable evidence" that he had been more than mildly depressed for about six months "prior to his acute deterioration".

Mr Seaton, Dr Dubow said, had been under "severe stress".

It was reasonable "from a psychiatric commonsense point of view" to deduce that the stresses Mr Seaton faced "either exacerbated his pre-existing depression or in fact triggered his depression".

Dr Dubow told police he had consulted Mr Seaton at least 13 times between June and November 5, 2004. He had been assessed as a high suicide risk having made two previous attempts on his life.

On his last consultation, 10 days before Mr Seaton's death, Dr Dubow said his patient's condition appeared to have "substantially improved".

Earlier, Detective Sergeant Nigel Hughes said he interviewed Mr Seaton's daughter Anne Marie on the day Mr Seaton died and she believed her father's depression had been triggered by Harness Racing NZ's inquiry into the use of blue magic.

She was aware of her father's earlier suicide attempt and felt that he had remained agitated.

Mr Hughes said Mr Seaton's wife, Anne, told police of a "relatively normal" life until the day the blue magic investigation was made public and police raided her husband's stables.

Mrs Seaton told police how devastated her husband had been at the implication that he was involved.

Mr Hughes said Mrs Seaton told him that when police decided against prosecution, Mr Seaton was notified that Harness Racing NZ was pursuing the matter and this had been another devastating blow.

In a provisional finding before a written decision, Mr McElrea found that Mr Seaton's death was "intentionally self-inflicted" while he was "suffering from a mild major depressive episode as at 10 days' previously" from which it was unlikely that he had recovered.

- NZPA