Helen Bird inquest: Mark Bird discussed ‘bad thoughts’, feeling of aggression with psychiatrist
A psychiatrist has told a coronial inquest in Hobart a widower named as a person of interest had been struggling with feelings of aggression and “bad thoughts” before his nurse wife’s death.
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A psychiatrist has told a coronial inquest a man named as “a person of interest” had been struggling with feelings of aggression and “bad thoughts” before his wife’s death.
Helen Bird’s death at her family home in Blackmans Bay in July 2010 was initially deemed a suicide.
However the inquest heard Mrs Bird’s husband Mark Bird became a person of interest more recently due to inconsistencies in his evidence and because he was later criminally convicted of fraud.
He has never been charged in relation to his wife’s death.
Mr Bird’s psychiatrist Eric Ratcliff gave evidence at the inquest in Hobart on Friday.
Counsel assisting the coroner Letitia Fox questioned Dr Ratcliff about Mr Bird’s mental state.
Dr Ratcliff, who began seeing Mr Bird in 2002, diagnosed him with PTSD and depression caused by serving in East Timor.
Ms Fox referred to Dr Ratcliff’s notes on his appointments with Mr Bird over several years.
The inquest heard the notes revealed Mr Bird at times struggled with alcohol and prescription drugs as a result of his PTSD.
There was a recurring theme he was experiencing feelings of aggression, Ms Fox told the inquest.
When asked by Ms Fox what Mr Bird meant by being aggressive, Dr Ratcliff said:
“I understand it was a matter of attitude and verbal aggression, not physical aggression.”
Ms Fox read out notes from a 2004 appointment which said: “He has trouble with bad thoughts, by which he means disposing of people I don’t like.”
When asked by Ms Fox what this meant, Dr Ratcliff said the comments were “a general statement of fantasy” during a time of heightened stress.
Ms Fox then focused on notes from Mr Bird’s appointments leading up to and just after Mrs Bird’s death.
Dr Ratcliff had noted “domestic problems”, and that Mr Bird appeared extra anxious and touchy in his last appointment before his wife died.
After she died, Dr Ratcliff’s appointment notes said: “No explanation for her suicide, no prior indications”.
Mr Bird is due to give evidence next week.
Contact with Hobart nurse’s UK family ‘severed’ after death
November 6: The sister of a Tasmanian palliative care nurse who died unexpectedly in July 2010, ostensibly by her own hand, has told a coronial inquest her sister’s widower “severed contact” with the United Kingdom-based family of his late wife.
The inquest into the death of Blackmans Bay mother-of-three Helen Bird, 43, who was a popular nurse at the Whittle Ward at Davey Street’s Repatriation Hospital, continued on Monday.
UK resident Suzanne Brown, Mrs Bird’s sister, gave evidence via videolink.
Counsel assisting the coroner Letitia Fox asked whether Ms Brown still had contact with her niece and nephews.
She did not, Ms Brown told the court.
“Mark [Mark Bird, Helen’s husband] severed contact with me and all [the UK-based] family,” she said.
“I used to send birthday cards to the View Street address, emailed to wish [my niece and nephews] happy birthday, sent Christmas cards... Mark would reply occasionally by email, but that was it.”
Ms Brown, in her written evidence to the court, cited by Ms Fox, said she and her husband John had been told Mrs Bird was “devastated about a job she didn’t get,” involving a position the late nurse was acting in and had applied for.
The court earlier heard evidence from one of Mrs Bird’s sons that Mr Bird had told him his mum was crestfallen at not securing the desired Royal Hobart Hospital role.
Ms Brown said she couldn’t recall exactly who told she and her husband about Mrs Bird’s disappointment.
She said she never detected a hint of depression or suicidal intent from her sister.
“I never thought she could be like that, She was such a strong personality, very upbeat,” Ms Brown said.
The inquest continues on Tuesday.
Differing accounts of strained marriage before nurse’s death
November 3: The sudden death of palliative care nurse Helen Bird came as a shock to her colleagues, an inquest has heard.
A coronial inquest is being held in Hobart into the July 2010 death of Mrs Bird, 43.
While her death was deemed a suicide, the inquest has heard Mrs Bird’s husband Mark Bird had become a “person of interest” more recently due to inconsistencies in his evidence and because Mr Bird was later criminally convicted of fraud.
Giving evidence on Friday, retired Whittle Ward clerk Helen Roberts said Mrs Bird was a “wonderful, caring, bubbly, delightful person.”
Ms Roberts recounted answering the phone call Mr Bird made to the Whittle Ward the day before Mrs Bird’s death.
“He just said she was really, really unwell,” Ms Roberts said.
“I said if she’s that unwell she really needs to go to a doctor. He said, ‘I’ve already given her something’.”
Ms Roberts also took a call from Mrs Bird before lunch time on the day of her death.
Mrs Bird said she would be coming in to work as planned for a training day.
When asked by counsel assisting the coroner Letitia Fox if Mrs Bird had sounded like her usual self, Ms Roberts said: “Definitely not”.
“She was just the opposite of how she normally is,” she said.
Ms Roberts said she “felt sick” when she learned Mrs Bird had died later that day.
Ms Roberts visited the Bird residence in Blackmans Bay that night to offer her condolences and deliver some food.
She said Mr Bird had been outside chatting with some people.
When asked how Mr Bird was behaving, Mrs Roberts said: “Not as a grieving husband”.
The inquest also heard differing accounts of the Birds’ marriage.
During a police interview conducted five days after Mrs Bird’s death, Mr Bird said he had been living back in the family home for over two years following a period of separation.
When asked if he or Mrs Bird had any extramarital relationships, Mr Bird said no, but that he had some “close female friends”.
Mr Bird expressed disbelief that is wife had taken her own life.
“There was no sign or indication that she was upset,” he said.
Lisa Buckingham, who was in a relationship with Mr Bird from 2010 to 2015, told the inquest Mr Bird had told her he had moved back to the family home only a short time before his wife’s death.
Ms Buckingham said Mr Bird had told her Mrs Bird had her death “all planned out”.
“She lived on her own for a year so she could go out and have affairs and was always at the casino. She had asked Mark to move back in so he could look after the kids after her death,” she said.
Ms Buckingham said her relationship with Mr Bird characterised by “psychological manipulation and deception”.
She said he would show no emotion except anger and would suddenly “flip”, and he had suggested he could cut the brake lines on her car.
Mr Bird is due to give evidence next week.
Inquest hears interview of husband of Helen Bird
November 2, 6.30pm: A Blackmans Bay woman was “delirious and incoherent” in the lead up to her apparent death by suicide, according to her husband who has since become a “person of interest”.
A coroner’s inquest is underway in Hobart into the July 2010 death of 43-year-old palliative care nurse and mother of three Helen Bird.
Husband Mark Bird became a “person of interest” more recently due to inconsistencies in his evidence, a note found at the death scene, and because he was later criminally convicted of fraud.
Police handling of the incident and the scene was closely examined on Thursday, with a number of attending police officers giving evidence.
Asked what she saw upon arriving at the Bird residence, first responder Constable Joanne Banks-Smith said Mr Bird had been performing CPR on Mrs Bird.
Ms Banks-Smith helped him by doing chest compressions until the ambulance arrived.
The inquest heard while the scene was forensically examined, none of the items seized were subject to fingerprint or DNA testing.
Under questioning by Coroner Robert Webster about why the tests weren’t done, Ms Banks-Smith agreed it was because the scene indicated a suicide.
“My report says it appeared no suspicious circumstances,” she said.
When shown the letter found at the scene, Ms Banks-Smith described it as a “suicide note”.
However Retired Detective Senior Constable Robyn Button, who was second to arrive, did not view the letter the same way.
“My thoughts were it was a letter to her husband, not a suicide note,” she said.
After Mrs Bird’s death, Ms Button spoke with a number of her friends and workmates.
“Several concerns were raised by various people who knew the deceased and all those people described her as a very loving and devoted mother who would not willingly leave her children,” Ms Button said.
Following those conversations, police invited Mr Bird to participate in an interview.
Video of the interview, conducted five days after Mrs Bird’s death, showed Mr Bird telling police about his family life, his relationship and how his wife was leading up to her death.
He told police Mrs Bird had been unwell the day before, prompting him to call her workplace, the Whittle Ward in Davey St,and say she was unable to work.
Mr Bird said his wife had shown signs of illness the previous night.
“She went to bed fine, (then) she was thrashing around, I woke up and she was walking around, she was a bit delirious and a bit incoherent,” he said.
The next morning she was not her “bubbly and alert” self, Mr Bird said.
“She was poorly the whole day … she was asleep but not asleep, semiconscious sort of behaviour,” he said.
Mr Bird said he spend the day checking on her and calling people for advice
The following day, the day of her death, she seemed better “as if nothing had happened.”
Mr Bird said he then went out for a few hours to walk the dog, after being asked to do so by Mrs Bird.
The inquest continues.
Questions raised over Hobart nurse’s apparent suicide
November 1, 5pm: When palliative care nurse Helen Bird was found deceased in her Blackmans Bay home more than a decade ago, her death was deemed a tragic suicide.
But now, evidence has come to light in a coronial inquest that questions whether the loving mother’s death really was by her own hand – or “whether anyone else was involved”.
On Wednesday, a six-day inquest began in Hobart into the July 2010 death of the 43-year-old, who had worked at the Davey Street Whittle Ward.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Letitia Fox, said Mrs Bird’s husband Mark Bird had become a “person of interest” more recently due to inconsistencies in his evidence, a note found at the death scene, and because Mr Bird was later criminally convicted of fraud.
Ms Fox said evidence showed Mr Bird had lied to police in relation to the fraud, and hidden evidence of a fire.
Mr Bird is representing himself during the inquest and will be called to give evidence next week.
In her opening address, Ms Fox said Mr Bird had suffered post traumatic stress disorder since being deployed to East Timor with the Australian Defence Force, and had been involved in extramarital relationships.
Ms Fox said it was undisputed that Mrs Bird was scheduled to attend work on July 7, but Mr Bird phoned the Whittle Ward and said she was unwell and would not be in.
He called Mrs Bird’s doctor and made an appointment, but she did not attend.
Ms Fox said everyone who spoke to her by phone before her death “reported that she seemed normal”.
However, Ms Fox said there was evidence subject to controversy, including claims that Mr Bird’s evidence had changed.
She said Mr Bird had omitted the fact he visited another woman that day.
She said there were no signs of struggle or violence at Mrs Bird’s death scene – and that there was a note left behind, but it didn’t seem like a suicide note, and that a knife was found inside a pair of Crocs shoes.
Ms Fox said the note didn’t mention the pair’s three children, but questioned Mr Bird’s commitment to their relationship.
Mr Bird found his wife at the scene and called triple-0, commencing CPR until emergency services arrived.
The pair’s twin sons Harry and Charlie, who were 13 at the time, gave evidence on Wednesday about the mother they described as happy and loving.
Harry Bird said he spoke to his mother on the morning of her death and described her as in “good spirits – happy, healthy and fine”.
He said he was “definitely shocked” to hear his mother had died, but didn’t talk with his father about why.
Charlie Bird however, said in the days leading up to her death, his mother wasn’t her normal self.
He said his father told him she took her own life after missing out on a job she’d applied for at the Royal Hobart Hospital.
Charlie said he’d used money he’d inherited from his mother’s superannuation to put towards a new family home at Geeveston – which was subsequently destroyed by fire.
Charlie said he didn’t receive any money from the insurance company or his father, but didn’t know why and hadn’t asked.
Under questioning from Ms Fox and Mr Webster, Charlie said he didn’t know how much money he’d signed over to invest in the Geeveston home, and had received no legal advice before signing the paperwork.
The inquest continues.
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