Mark Speight Found Dead - TV Presenter Blamed Himself For Fiancée Natasha Collins Death
The story of Mark Speight and his fiancée has taken a terrible final twist today after his body was found hanged at London Paddington train station.
Mark Speight was the TV presenter of children’s programmes such as SMart, Scratchy & Co. and History Buster, who in January, found his fiancée’s body in the bath of the North London flat they shared together.
At first he was arrested on suspicion of murder and supplying Class A drugs. He later admitted the pair had been partying all night, but was cleared of murder, and released on bail.
The BBC then cancelled SMart for the foreseeable future, and Speight quit as presenter.
An inquest, which was opened in January, records Collins’ death as one by misadventure after high levels of cocaine and sleeping pills were found in her blood. The results were made public on April 2nd, by which time Speight is said to be depressed.
On April 7th, Speight was reported missing after failing to meet Collins’ mother for lunch. Today, six days after he disappeared, his body was discovered hanged at Paddington station in London.
This is an absolutely unbelievable ending to a tragedy which has ended up taking two lives away, and affecting many others.
Although many would say Collins took her own life by doing drugs in the first place, it’s something which thousands of people do every weekend, and most don’t die from it. However, Speight must have become so depressed after blaming himself for her death, that he felt the only way out was suicide.
My sympathies go out to his family and friends today, and I just hope that after taking some time to recover from the tragedy, that they can draw a line under the whole thing, and try to get back to some level of normality.
Speight was a great children’s presenter, and one whose programmes I used to regularly watch before I got old and bitter. He had a certain way of presenting which inspired and motivated youngsters, and will be sorely missed from British television.
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