89-year-old blind man's roof fall suicide

Sep 4 2008 by David Himelfield, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A BLIND man of 89 deliberately climbed out of an attic window and fell to his death, an inquest heard yesterday.

Harold Blackburn, of Brook Terrace, Slaithwaite, died from head injuries caused by the fall on June 8.

The retired dyer had suffered breathing difficulties and had been frightened of suffocating.

Mr Blackburn, who used home oxygen and a nebuliser, had joked to his family he would jump from the attic window if his breathing became too bad.

A neighbour told the Huddersfield inquest she had seen him pull himself out of the window using a waste pipe before sliding off the roof.

Coroner Roger Whittaker recorded that Mr Blackburn had taken his own life.