Diplomat vanished from Hampshire home while suffering 'severe stress'

A diplomat who vanished from his home in Hampshire after suffering "extreme stress" while working for the Government's Covid taskforce took his own life, an inquest has found.

Former ambassador to Nepal Richard Morris was last seen running near his home in Bentley on May 6 2020, and his body was found three months later.

An inquest into his death in Winchester heard that he had worked long hours under high pressure, helping co-ordinate briefings to ministers at a time when the UK was battling the fierce first wave of coronavirus.

This assignment to the taskforce came after he was put on the team looking at the case of Harry Dunn, the 19-year-old killed when a car crashed into his motorbike outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire which sparked a diplomatic incident.

On Tuesday, a coroner concluded that Mr Morris had taken his own life after suffering stress working for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and amid worries about his future.

Senior coroner Christopher Wilkinson said: "Richard Morris took his own life while suffering severe and acute stress.

"I recognise the very difficult circumstances in which Richard, the wider taskforce and the FCDO were working in at the time against the backdrop of a very fast-moving pandemic", he added.

He described the taskforce in the early days of the coronavirus crisis as "much like a plane being flown at the same time as building it".

Mr Wilkinson mentioned Mr Morris' history of stress and worries about performing to the best of his ability.

Previously at the inquest, his widow Alison Morris said her husband feared there was not enough time to process information in the fast-moving period and if any information error got past him the Government "would be torn apart in the press".

As a result he was "desperate" to keep on top of what was going on, working every day with "no real time off", she said.

She said her husband was a "quiet extrovert" who "thrived on interactions with others".

"He was genuinely interested in people.

"His kindness and compassion shone through even when there was a language barrier."

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