A man whose partner was cleared of his murder was unlawfully killed, a coroner ruled on Wednesday, February 10, 2021.
Paul Jenner, 41, was attacked by Sherry Naidoo only two weeks after she had been released from prison for assaulting him.
Mr Jenner, an alcoholic from Houghton Regis, Beds , died 12 days later in Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge after suffering a second bleed bleed to the brain.
He was taken to the Luton and Dunstable hospital October 24, 2019 before being transferred to Addenbrookes where he was treated for bleeding on the brain and facial injuries.
At Luton Crown Court last October Judge Lynn Tayton QC ruled there was no case to answer on a murder charge nor for the alternative charge of manslaughter against 37-year-old Naidoo.
Naidoo was jailed for 16 months after admitting assaulting him at their address in Dylan Court on October 23, 2019.
At an inquest in Ampthill, the coroner Sean Cummings recorded a verdict of unlawful killing saying: “After hearing the evidence I consider that it is likely beyond the balance of probability that Sherry Naidoo did subject Paul Jenner to a violent assault and that assault put in train a sequence of events that led to his death.”
The inquest was told that during the trial a neuropathologist agreed with the defence that the bleeding of Mr Jenner’s brain could have occurred over a period of time when Naidoo was in custody for the previous offence. A pathologist also said she could not rule out the possibility that he had accidentally stumbled to the floor in drink.
The cause of death was given a complications from an acute bleed and traumatic head injuries. He was also suffering from chronic alcoholic disease.
DC Tanzeem Siddiqui a witness saw an altercation near Dylan Court in which Naido stood over Mr Jenner and said: “Get the f… up, get the f… up.”
Another neighbour saw him with a black right eye. Mr Jenner said: “That’s ok. I am used to it.”
In Addenbrookes Mr Jenner called the police saying she had just done six months for the same thing and had only been out two weeks . He said: “ We had been drinking together and it escalated. I don’t remember anything and she nearly killed me.”
But the next day he withdrew his support, saying he hit his head against the wall telling the officers: “I just want to go back to my Sherry.”
