Kerri-Anne Donaldson: Britain's Got Talent dancer died from suicide days after being arrested over 'child sex offending', coroner rules
Kerri-Anne Donaldson, who once appeared on Britain’s Got Talent as a dancer, died from suicide three days after she was arrested on suspicion of “child sexual offending”.
An inquest was held at Winchester after the death of Ms Donaldson at the age of 38. The dancer, who reached the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent in 2014 as part of the dance group Kings and Queens, was found dead at her home in Farnborough, Hampshire on June 7, 2023.
The inquest heard that Ms Donaldson had been arrested on June 4 and questioned about a “sexual” offence at a police station. She denied the allegations.
Donaldson was then reported as missing and was later admitted to St Peter’s Hospital in Surrey after being found having taken an overdose at a hotel in Woking.
She was placed under a “high risk care plan” on June 5 but was released from hospital on June 6. She was to receive care from the home treatment team after she was deemed to have been assessed as “settled”. She was found hanged at her home one day later.
Coroner Jason Pegg confirmed that he was recording a conclusion of suicide for Ms Donaldson.
The inquest previously heard that MsDonaldson told the alleged victim that she would take her own life “if someone finds out” about the allegation made to police.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Martin Williams, who was one of the mental health workers who assessed Ms Donaldson before her release from hospital, said that she had been suffering from an “acute adjustment reaction” but that she had “shifted from a position of quite stressed and downbeat about the police involvement to where she felt much more confident”.
He added that Ms Donaldson told staff she “wanted to take her own legal advice and wanted to fight the case”.
Dr Williams told the inquest: “I was able to form a snapshot of the risk she was posing at that point, she expressed clearly that she didn't have plans to carry out acts that could lead to her death. It struck me how warm and personable Kerri-Anne was, it struck me she was open, she was receptive, she was showing emotions appropriate of what she was facing.
”We considered the possibility she was masking a higher level of risk than she was saying, but all the indications were that she was settling and the risk was markedly reduced from the previous day."