A trainee police officer killed himself after complaining to family that he was being bullied at work and having a nightmare his boss was ‘trying to strangle him’, an inquest has heard.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Anugrah Abraham, from Whitefield, Greater Manchester, was found dead in woods last year, the day he was due to return to work with West Yorkshire Police.
The 21-year-old – known to his loved ones as Anu – was ‘set up to fail’ because of a lack of support provided by the force, his family have said.
His father Amar Abraham told Rochdale Coroner’s Court that his son claimed he was being ‘bullied’ and suffered racism at work, which was denied by WYP.
But senior coroner Joanne Kearsley ruled there was ‘no evidence any steps should have been taken which would, on the balance of probabilities, have made a difference to the tragic outcome’.
Mr Abraham had been struggling with the pressure of working as a trainee police officer alongside studying for an apprenticeship degree through Leeds Trinity University before he killed himself on March 3, 2023.
The inquest into his death heard that he had been telling friends and family about his desire to quit the scheme in the weeks beforehand.
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Concluding the inquest yesterday, the coroner said the thought of returning to work ‘was likely to have been a source of distress’ to Mr Abraham before he died.
Mr Abraham’s father told the hearing that his son appeared to be ‘completely lost’ and had told him he was suffering nightmares about his sergeant ‘sitting on his chest and trying to strangle him’.
Mr Abraham – who was described by his family as a ‘gentle giant’ – was born in Delhi, India before moving to the UK with his family in 2003. His father told the inquest he wanted to work in the police since he was a child.
He applied to join West Yorkshire Police in October 2021 and initially seemed ‘happy’, but problems allegedly began after he was posted to Halifax Police Station in April 2022.
