We owe it to Robert to finally learn the truth

cousin, Natalie, that read: ‘I’m so sorry, Maxine.’

Perplexed, she called Natalie, who could hardly speak through her tears, and learned Mr Fleeting was dead.

She said: ‘I called his parents, Susan and Charlie, but they were as distraught as I was and none of us could really speak. They didn’t know anything at that stage, except that he had passed away.’

Still in a daze, Miss Menhennet received a call from a Thames Valley Police officer about an hour later. She could never have been prepared for what was to follow.

Her voice trembling with emotion, she recalled: ‘He told me Robert had died. I’d been hoping that somehow there had been a mistake, but there was no doubt.

‘As if that wasn’t bad enough, he went on to tell me that Robert had taken his own life, and they had found three suicide notes to me and to his family. He then went on to tell me what the notes said: “I am so sorry. I had sex with a man. I am so ashamed I had to do this.”

‘I couldn’t really understand what he was saying. I’d just learned my fiancé was dead, and this was almost too much for me to take in on top of that nightmare. You can imagine that I was devastated.’

Miss Menhennet added: ‘I knew Robert very well. He had lots of friends. There were family friends who were gay who we had stayed with and who he really liked. He was not homophobic and if he’d felt he was gay he’d have done something about it and wouldn’t have been leading me up the garden path.

‘But in common with everyone who

‘Things about his final hours don’t add up’

knew him, friends, family, colleagues, I am 100 per cent certain that he was 100 per cent straight.

‘So many things about what we’ve been told about his final hours don’t add up.’

Miss Menhennet, of Cliftonville, Kent, could not face attending the inquest at Oxford where Coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict of suicide while accepting that any homosexual act preceding the death had been consensual, but had come as a ‘dreadful blow’ to Mr Fleeting.

The inquest heard he had been in Henley, Oxfordshire, drinking and, at the end of the night, had a row with a gay medic who felt Mr Fleeting had left him alone at a taxi rank.

Giving evidence, the medic said they had ‘made up’ and Mr Fleeting had joined him in his room where they had ended up having sex.

Hours later, Mr Fleeting, who was found to be four times over the drink-driving limit, was found hanged in his own room.

Like Mr Fleeting’s parents, Miss Menhennet is far from satisfied that investigators did a thorough job and is now joining them in calling for a full inquiry.

They say Mr Fleeting suffered internal injuries, which they claim shows he was sexually assaulted.

And they are furious that Mr Fleeting’s body was released for cremation before the results of the post-mortem into his death were made available.

Miss Menhennet said: ‘Robert liked a drink on a night out, and when he’d had a good drink and he saw a bed, he just crashed.

‘His personality didn’t change, there was no dark side, he just collapsed into bed and slept it off.

‘Nothing I heard from the inquest tallies with what those of us who loved Robert knew about him. He was a lovely man with his whole life ahead of him and we owe it to him to fight for a proper investigation and for answers that make sense.’

She added: ‘I know my life will have to move on, but I can’t move on until I have closure. I need to know what happened, and what the coroner found cannot be right.

‘I’m glad Charlie and Susan are fighting on. They’ve lost a son they adored and were proud of; they’ve lost the pleasure of everything he would have achieved, and the prospect of having his children in their lives.

‘They need closure as well, and I’ll be happy to fight beside them for the truth.’

If you or anyone you know is affected by suicide issues, call the Samaritans on 08457 909090.