A bodyguard who took on SOS missions across world troublespots committed suicide at his Manchester city centre apartment after his ‘sense of bravado’ left him unable to cope with his turbulent love life.
Twice-married Ian Robinson, 37, protected foreign dignitaries during dangerous assignments in Libya and Afghanistan yet back in Britain he became obsessed with saving a crumbling romance.
Eventually after a row with ex-girlfriend Melissa Biagini he texted her saying: “I’ve tried twice but chickened out” and followed the message with an image of a strap.
In the early hours of the following morning the former army corporal was found hanged from the balcony of his apartment by a neighbour.
An inquest was told Robinson originally from Ashington, Northumberland, had left the army in 2006 and began working as a private security official where he took pride in his new job helping protect diplomatic and foreign aid workers from the UK.
But at home his life had been on a ‘downward spiral’ due to his obsessions with keeping fit and finding love and had tried to kill himself after the break-up of his second marriage.
His mother Mary Saint, a mental health professional with 36 years’ experience told the Manchester hearing: “He was initially very happy with his role in close protection and he had a great sense of pride and professionalism.
”He always extremely physical – like an athlete. Training was his life. He would train five to six hours a day. For the work he did he had to be very fit so he would always be in the gym.
”But later his mood deteriorated and he wasn’t getting the sense of job satisfaction he used to. He had difficulties with his back from the beginning of 2013 and that impacted hugely on his ability to train.
”He needed long periods of rest but exercise was very important to him and it was a great part of his wellbeing.
“He didn’t have an outlet if he was feeling frustrated and angry and couldn’t go to the gym. When he couldn’t train he was like a caged bear.
“It was extremely important to his emotional wellbeing; I think he was becoming obsessed with a lot of different issues in his life.
“He became very angry and very obsessed with his relationship. He would go from euphoric to catastrophic. The relationship contributed to his downward spiral.
”We tried to talk about behavioural therapy because he was thinking in a certain way. The relationship wasn’t giving him the fulfilment he desired.
“By the nature of the job he was doing it is difficult for people with emotional difficulties to seek help because it would be professional suicide.
“People in this situation have a sense of bravado and it’s not an environment where you say you are struggling emotionally.”
Mrs Saint said Ian was determined to make his relationship work despite the protests of family and friends.
She spoke to him two weeks before his death where he said he wasn’t able to deal with the break-up of his relationship and how it wasn’t as he wanted it.
She added: “When his second marriage broke up he came to see me and I was aware he had attempted to poison himself in a car.
“Part of my job is to assess suicidal risk and intention and I thought it was a serious attempt.”
His father Alan Robinson said: “On the Tuesday before his death I spoke to him and could tell he was in a low mood and I asked him what was wrong. He said he was in Manchester by himself and had no friends and couldn’t train.
”I said ‘come home – your family and friends and everyone will help you through this’. He said ‘no’ and I found out the next day he had gone to see Melissa.
”I told him he had to bite the bullet and move on and said ‘someone else will give you a chance of happiness’. He said he couldn’t because he loved her.”
Mother-of-one Miss Biagini from St Albans, Herts, said she and Ian had separated in the summer of 2012 but they tried to rekindle their romance in January 2013.
She said: “Everything important to him wasn’t as he wanted it to be. His training and work and ideas he had for family life were what defined him as a man and he couldn’t fix it. He had frustrations that the relationship wasn’t going the way he wanted.
“He didn’t have the skills needed to sustain a long-term relationship. We talked about alternative ways of doing things. Periods of calmness and kindness were followed by periods of rage.
“It may not have been a conventional relationship but it is what we had for so many years. He was reading self-help books and looking for solutions to problems he had.
”He said he felt very alone and he felt isolated. He said he was alone and hadn’t left the flat and wasn’t eating or washing.”
In the days before his death in May last year Robinson visited Melissa but returned home shortly afterwards after a row in which he accused of her dating another man.
She added: “He struggled with the concept that when we were apart I had tried to move forward. My son was out the house and we needed to let the dust settle so he left and I told him it wasn’t the end of the world and he needed to get some help because I couldn’t fix this.
“I spoke to him for the last time on Saturday evening and he was screaming down the phone. I told Ian and told him I had said hello and that was it.”
Recording a verdict of suicide, coroner Sara Lewis told Mr Robinson’s family: “He was in a difficult relationship which was clearly having a negative effect on his wellbeing but he couldn’t walk away from it.
“That was compounded by the injury he sustained to his back which was preventing him from training to his normal level. His training was an outlet for him and central to his emotional wellbeing to the extent that he was almost obsessed.
“There was a picture of a deteriorating wellbeing and I accept that his family and friends urged him to get help but for reasons including the potential effect on his career he didn’t feel able to seek that help.”
After the inquest his father Alan said friends will be taking part in the Northumberland coastal challenge marathon to raise money for Help for Heroes in memory of Ian. There will also be a ‘Robbo Memorial’ cricket match held at Newbiggin Hall in Northumberland.
Image courtesy of Bernard Russell, with thanks
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