AN 80-year-old man who killed himself by jumping from the top of the Westgate Centre asked nearby shop staff how to get ‘as high up as possible’.

Vernon Newey, who died on January 4, carried a camera around town and asked shop staff how to get to the ‘roof’.

In a statement read by assistant coroner Nicholas Graham at his inquest yesterday, the manager of Barclay’s Bank on Cornmarket Street said he had been on the ground floor of the shop when he was approached by Mr Newey who wanted to ‘get as high up as possible’ to take some photographs of Oxford.

He said: “He was holding a camera at the time.

The manager added that he directed the man to a nearby city centre hotel as it was open to members of the public.

He described seeing Mr Newey go into the hotel, before leaving minutes later.

Another statement from a senior library assistant at the Westgate Centre said: “He was looking lost and you often get customers looking lost so I asked if I could help – he said ‘I am looking for the roof’.”

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She described walking Mr Newey out of the library, down the stairs and pointing in the direction of the car food court balcony, explaining: “On my way down the stairs he said that he had come from Wantage.”

These were the last people to see him alive.

CCTV footage from the shopping centre captured him walking up the stairs to the Westgate’s roof terrace, taking a chair from a restaurant, and waiting for people to walk past him before dropping his belongings and jumping to his death.

A witness dialled 999 after seeing him fall and a paramedic arrived within 11 minutes.

Police officers also joined them at the scene and after a search of the building found a Sainsbury’s bag belonging to Mr Newey which had a book written by his son inside.

GP reports revealed that he had suffered with insomnia and had been stressed because of money problems.

Only weeks before his death he had tried to kill himself by overdosing in the doctor’s surgery toilets and had been assessed as medium to high risk by the emergency crisis team. However he had been discharged from the hospital after denying thoughts of self harm.

The assistant coroner said he had died of multiple injuries but concluded a verdict of suicide.

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