Do we really need to know more about Gary Speed’s death?

Do we have a right to know why the football manager Gary Speed killed himself, if indeed he did kill himself? I’m not convinced.

There’s a typically thoughtful and ruminatively controversial article by Stephen Glover in today’s Daily Mail. Stephen is critical of the inquest into Speed’s death, pointing out that the coroner was less than forensic in his cross-questioning of the various witnesses – particularly Speed’s wife and his close friend Alan Shearer.

Mrs Speed had said that the evening before she discovered her husband hanging from a banister they had ‘exchanged words’, although she could not be sure what about. They were sufficient to provoke her to leave the family home in the early hours of the morning and return somewhat later to find herself locked out. It seems unlikely that she would be unable to recall the reason for their temporary estrangement.

Similarly, Alan Shearer reported that Speed had said there were ‘issues’ with his marriage, and was not asked what these issues were. In the end, the coroner returned a narrative verdict leaving the question unanswered as to whether he topped himself or was the victim of a strange accident.

Does it matter? Glover suggests that a bit more forensic inquiry on the part of the coroner would have put to rest the bizarre and unsubstantiated rumours which have been doing the rounds on the internet. He contrasts the febrile madness of the internet with the responsible and sane behaviour of the press, which wished only to reveal the truth. Ahem.

I doubt very much that closer questioning would have ended the maniacal ranting of the web, any more than it has done so with, say, the death of David Kelly or the causes of 9/11.