Date set for inquest into tragic death of animal-lover Bailey Lister amid 'abuse' and 'vitriol' online
Blackpool Tower was lit up in in honour of Bailey as tributes poured in following his death.
A date has been set for the inquest into the death of 22-year-old Lancashire animal lover Bailey Lister,.
Bailey was found dead at home in May of this year and a post mortem confirmed his cause of death as hanging, a pre-inquest review at Blackpool Town Hall heard.
Blackpool and Fylde assistant coroner Louise Rae set the date or Bailey’s inquest for October 29, with the following day also set aside as a reserve date.
Ms Rae said it would include evidence of Bailey’s mental health from the Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, responsible for mental health services on the Fylde coast.
Lucy Vanderpump, representing the Trust at the review hearing, said a review into Bailey’s case was being carried out and would be available to be presented at the inquest. The review’s author will be among the witnesses.
The inquest would cover “how Bailey was thinking, feeling and behaving in the days up his death”, Ms Rae told the review.
Bailey’s death was said by friends at the time to have come after he suffered an online campaign of 'abuse' and 'vitriol' which they claimed lasted for months.
Those closest to Bailey insisting that the criticism escalated around the time when he was evicted from land in Hambleton which he used to run his charity Hugo's Small Animal Sanctuary.
A former student at Myerscough agricultural college, he had founded the sanctuary when he was just a teenager and ran it from a stable block in Hambleton.
The North Shore-raised young man offered a refuge for unwanted small pets such as hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits as well as birds.
Bailey was originally inspired after he rescued a rat called Hugo as a child, which drove him on to work full-time saving other small animals.
However, following his eviction from the Hambleton site, he had been forced to wind down the operation and find homes for the animals in his care.
Blackpool Tower was lit up in Bailey’s honour following his death and online tributes poured in.
Katelyn Jade described Bailey as having a 'heart of pure gold', while Joanne Jackson said: "That boy had the biggest heart" and Nicola Burns added: "He was an angel in disguise."