Telford inquest told of threat before hanging

A week before Jason McGowan was found dead, his family received an ominous threat, his inquest was told yesterday.

Mr McGowan, 20, the second black man from the same family to be discovered hanging in Telford, had been trying to investigate the first death when he was found in remarkably similar circumstances.

His uncle Errol McGowan, 34, was found suspended from a doorknob of a house he was looking after for a friend in July 1999. His family – knowing he had been the victim of a racist hate campaign – pressed for a full investigation of the death.

Yesterday Clifton McGowan, Errol's brother and Jason's uncle, said he had received an anonymous call from a man in early December. "He said, 'You better back off this Errol thing or we will sort one of you out'," said Mr McGowan. Less than a month later, Jason McGowan was found hanging from railings near a pub where he had been celebrating New Year's Eve with his new wife, Sinead.

In cross-examination, Ronald Thwaites QC, for West Mercia police, said officers had found only one call to Mr McGowan's phone on that day, from a business associate.

Clifton McGowan explained that he had subsequently realised that he had had two mobile telephones at the time and that the call may have come in to the second number. But, by the time the police had come back to him 10 months later, it had been too late to check calls into the second phone.

Detective Chief Inspector Brunger told the inquest that he had found no evidence of racial threats or assaults.

The inquest continues.