Wayne Brown had suffered months of alleged harassment and media interest in claims he faked a qualification were the ‘final straw’, his partner said.
A chief fire officer who was at the centre of a probe into allegations he had lied about his qualifications and faced scrutiny from the media took his own life because he just “couldn’t take it anymore” after months of alleged harassment, his partner has told an inquest.
Wayne Brown, 54, chief fire officer at West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS), was found at his flat in Birmingham by police on the morning of January 24 last year after colleagues alerted them that he had failed to turn up for work, Birmingham Coroners’ Court was told.
Mr Brown, the UK’s first black fire chief, had been under pressure because of a “barrage” of harassment and complaints about his character in the form of emails, Freedom of Information requests and letters to his workplace as well as social media posts making allegations about him, and had left a note for police saying the last 18 months of his life had been “absolutely awful” and “I can’t do this anymore”.
Mr Brown’s partner, Nicola White, told the inquest on Monday that national media attention in relation to claims he had lied on his CV and his LinkedIn page about having an MBA postgraduate business qualification – which was a requirement for chief fire officers – was the “final straw”.
The court was told that on January 16 last year, days before he took his own life, colleagues at the fire service had been copied into an email saying that Mr Brown did not have the MBA qualification from London South Bank University he claimed to, which sparked an internal investigation.
Satinder Sahota, monitoring officer for WMFS, said after questioning him about the claims, Mr Brown admitted he had started an MBA but had not finished it and apologised for putting it on his CV.
Ms White said her partner was clearly “low” about the ongoing investigation, but felt the “final straw” for him was when a national news outlet ran a story about him the night before he took his own life.
She said: “He just couldn’t take it anymore. I said ‘Wayne, you need to speak to someone’, but he didn’t like to show his weaknesses.
“He was the first person to support others and tell them to seek help, but he felt he needed to be strong for everyone else.
“On the Tuesday… I did think to ask him, ‘you’re not going to do anything silly are you?’ but I put that thought immediately out of my head because I thought he would never do that.”
Ms White said her partner did say he felt supported by the fire service, although Mr Sahota said Mr Brown was a “private and stoic” man who did not seek the support from occupational health colleagues that he was urged to take during their meetings.
On one occasion days before he died, the fire chief, who took up the role permanently in April 2023, did tell Mr Sahota that he was feeling under pressure, was exhausted, struggling to sleep and had “racing thoughts”.
Mr Sahota told the inquest: “My view at the time was that he was saying he was okay. I urged him to reach out to occupational health.
“I had to be careful with Wayne… I didn’t want to annoy him, it was quite clear he was private and he was the most senior person in the organisation and I didn’t want to be disrespectful of that because it would affect my relationship with him going forward.”
Deputy chief fire officer Joanne Bowcock said in a statement read out at the inquest that she recognised Mr Brown was under pressure due to the alleged harassment and the media interest, but that she never considered he would take his own life.
She said he appeared to be coping well but when speaking to him on January 18 after the email about the MBA had been received, told her he had “the worst two weeks of his life” and feared he would be suspended.
Detective Chief Inspector Jonathan Kiteley, who was the West Midlands Police officer investigating the alleged harassment, said a man was charged with harassing the fire chief in July 2023 and while there had been some early court appearances, Mr Brown had expressed “frustration” to DCI Kiteley that a court date had been pushed back.
He said: “I had no idea he would go on to take his own life but I could tell the constant barrage of contact was getting to him.
“I appreciated it was difficult for him to go on with his day job because of other pressures.”
The charges against the man accused of harassment were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service after Mr Brown’s death.
Senior coroner Louise Hunt, who presided over the inquest, said Mr Brown had died as a result of suicide and indicated she would be writing a Prevention of Future Deaths report to WMFS to raise concerns.
She said the fire service did not undertake any investigation following Mr Brown’s death so lessons could be learned and was concerned that there was no policy requiring them to do so.
Mrs Hunt was also concerned that there appeared to be no mechanism for recording concerns raised about the welfare of staff during a fact-finding or formal investigation, and that there was no provision in the service’s health and wellbeing or mental health policy for employees as senior as Mr Brown was.
In a tribute, Mr Brown’s son Kai said he was “loved and respected”, had many friends and was their “shining star”.
He said: “We will be forever proud of him and he leaves a void in our lives which will never be filled.”
