A COLLEGE vice-principal threw himself to his death from cliffs after he was diagnosed with HIV, the virus that leads to Aids, and became depressed about his future, an inquest was told.
Kevin Goodison was vice-principal of Doncaster College, and according to colleagues had a bright future.
However, the 35-year-old had been admitted to hospital because of depression. His family had hopes for his recovery after he was discharged bu
t just weeks later he went missing from his home in Rotherham.
Mr Goodinson phoned his family and his partner from a hotel at a motorway service station to reassure them he was safe but the next day he failed to meet his sister as arranged.
His body was later found on a beach at the bottom of sheer cliffs in Whitby and his car was parked above the spot.
At an inquest held in Scarborough yesterday, North Yorkshire coroner Michael Oakley read a statement from Mr Goodinson's devastated sister Janet.
It revealed Mr Goodinson had been diagnosed as HIV positive, and had also suffered a serious bout of pneumonia months before his death. On top of this he had contracted an infection after a nose operation.
The statement said: "Kevin was depressed and took an overdose of Temazepam in May and spent two weeks in hospital. He was severely depressed and kept saying that there was no way out, things were never going to get better.
"He constantly needed reassurances and when he left hospital he did seem to get better.""
But the hearing was told that on June 19, Mr Goodinson disappeared and his worried sister called the police. Shortly afterwards Mr Goodinson called his sister to tell her he was staying in a hotel at Woodall Services on the M1 near Sheffield.
"He sounded calm and said he was at a hotel," she said in her statement. "He agreed to meet me the next day but when he failed to turn up we called the police again."
Police discovered he had headed to the coast and clambered over a fence to reach the edge of cliffs. They also found notes in his hotel room.
Recording a verdict of suicide, Mr Oakley said: "Kevin was certainly suffering from depression and was clearly concerned about the condition from which he suffered, and whether he would make a recovery from it.
"He had previously taken an overdose and was behaving in a strange manner. His car was located near the cliffs, and it had to be a deliberate act to get over the large fence over the spot he was found."
Mr Goodinson was popular among college colleagues and had been tipped as a future principal. A condolence page on Doncaster College's website contains hundreds of tributes to him.
Former principal George Holmes, who first employed Mr Goodinson, said: "Kevin was a pleasure to work with, a bright, funny, articulate individual with a speed of mind and a grasp of issues which in my experience is seldom found.
"Kevin had the capacity, in my view, to achieve the very highest professional ambitions. He was, had he chosen to be, a principal in the making.
"His loss is a tragedy, the world will be a poorer place for his passing."
