Britain’s Got Talent dancer Kerrie Anne Donaldson, who died three days after she was arrested on suspicion of ‘child sex offending’, died by suicide, a coroner has ruled.  

Kerri-Anne Donaldson, who reached the semi-final of the ITV show in 2014 as part of the dance group Kings and Queens, was found hanged at her home in Farnborough, Hampshire, on June 7, 2023.  

She had been questioned at Basingstoke Police Station about an alleged ‘sexual offence’, which she denied, four days prior, an inquest held at Winchester was told. The full details about the allegations were not idsclosed  

Following her arrest, the dancer went missing and was found at a Travelodge Hotel in Woking, Surrey, and was later admitted to St Peter’s Hospital having taken an overdose. 

Ms Donaldson was placed under a ‘high risk care plan’ on June 5, but she was released from hospital on June 6 into the care of a home treatment team after she was assessed to have ‘settled’.

Her sister Cara took her back home and left later that evening after she told her she would not kill herself.

The following morning the dancer’s sister arrived at the house and found a note on the staircase which read: ‘Call 999, don’t come in, I’m sorry’. Ms Donaldson was declared dead that day.

Jason, area coroner for Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton, concluded the dancer died of suicide and that she suffered from an acute reaction which contributed to her death.

Kerri-Anne Donaldson, who reached the semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent in 2014 as part of the dance group Kings and Queens, was found dead at her home in Farnborough in June 2023

The young star died in June 2023 in her home town of Farnborough, Hampshire

Ms Donaldson (front row, second left) performed on Britain’s Got Talent in 2014 as part of the group Kings and Queens

He told the court that Ms Donaldson’s ‘world changed’ on June 4 2023, when she was arrested.

‘Allegations had been made one month previously, on the 4th May 2023, and these allegations were made against Kerri by a complainant in what was going to be a criminal case,’ he said.

‘The complainant reported that Kerri had said to her she would commit suicide if anyone found out,’ he added. I find as a fact that Kerri had made threats to end her life.’

‘What is clear from the mental health act assessment and both psychiatrists is that Kerri was expressing a clear desire to go home on the 6th June 2023,’ Mr Pegg said.

‘Kerri was a performer and it seems to me that it is more likely than not that Kerri was a person because of her engaging personality, her intelligence, that she was able to mask her true thoughts from those assessing her – those thoughts being an intention to end her own life.’

Before her death, Kerrie searched online ‘What does it mean to incriminate yourself’, the coroner said.

The inquest previously heard that police found, after carrying out a risk assessment, Ms Donaldson was at an ‘increased risk of self-harm or suicide’ because of the offence of which she was accused.

A psychiatric liaison nurse, Serina Jura, who initially assessed the 38-year-old, deemed her to be of ‘high and imminent risk of suicide’ and rated her risk as level 10 out of 10.

But consultant psychiatrist Dr Martin Williams, who was one of three mental health professionals to assess her before her release, thought her risk of suicide had reduced and that she no longer thought she was ‘definitely going to prison’. 

The court previously heard that Ms Donaldson was worried she would be sent to jail for the alleged sexual offence and that she ‘didn’t want to live that life’.

Dr Williams said: ‘We considered the possibility she was masking a higher level of risk than she was saying, but all the indications were that she was settling and the risk was markedly reduced from the previous day.’

He said Ms Donaldson was ‘open to speaking to professionals in whatever form that may take’, and she was referred to the home treatment team prior to her being allowed to be discharged from hospital.

Dr Williams added that Ms Donaldson had refused to disclose the nature of the offence she was accused of, but she had told him that she no longer believed she was ‘definitely going to go to prison’.

‘We had to make inferences from the fact she had been bailed,’ he said.

Ms Donaldson had no bail conditions, which led Dr Williams to presume that she had not been arrested for a serious sexual or violent offence.

‘She had shifted from a position of quite stressed and downbeat about the police involvement to where she felt much more confident,’ he said.

Dr Williams said Ms Donaldson had said that she ‘wanted to take her own legal advice and wanted to fight the case’.

He added: ‘She believed she had a good case in putting together a defence to whatever the arrest was for, she believed she had a good case.

‘She expressed a view on the day of the assessment, she was no longer so worried about going to prison.’

Dr Williams, however, told the inquest that he had made some incorrect assumptions about the dancer’s situation.

When asked by Coroner Jason Pegg if he’d had the ‘full picture’ and whether there was a possibility that Ms Donaldson would have been detained for further assessment, he answered: ‘That’s a possibility, yes.’

Dr Williams, who previously worked at the high-security psychiatric hospital Broadmoor, said the outcome ‘might’ have been different if the reality of the matter was known.

Britain’s Got Talent star Ms Donaldson took her own life three days after she was arrested on suspicion of a sexual offence

Dr Williams, working as an independent doctor, did not have access to the notes made by Serina Juru, the psychiatric liaison nurse who initially assessed Ms Donaldson and rated her suicide risk as 10 out of 10.

The court heard that these notes can be requested, but Dr Williams did not ask for them, meaning he was unaware the dancer had said she would take her own life once her sister left her alone.

The lawyer representing the family, Matthew Hill, asked Dr Williams whether the assumptions downplayed the risk to Ms Donaldson – the psychiatrist agreed that was the case.

Mr Hill asked whether the Mental Health Act assessment ‘focused too much on how she presented to you and too little on how she presented 14 hours earlier’, to which Dr Williams replied: ‘Yes.’

Speaking about how Ms Donaldson came across during the assessment, he said: ‘It struck me how warm and personable Kerri-Anne was, it struck me that she was very open, it struck me that there was use of humour.

‘I deemed she was quite reactive, showing emotions appropriate to what she was facing,’ he said.

‘I took that all as quite positive indication and used that to rule out certain other psychiatric disorders.

‘I didn’t believe that she was suffering from significant depression.’

Detective Chief Superintendent Sarah McConnell, of Hampshire Constabulary, said that the officer who carried out an enhanced risk assessment of Ms Donaldson while she was in hospital had acted ‘appropriately’ by not revealing to medical staff the nature of the offence she had been arrested for.

She said that the form was used by officers to assess the mental health of suspects of certain offences including what she described for Ms Donaldson’s case as ‘child sex offending’.

Ms McConnell said that the assessment was not designed for use by response officers, such as those attending the hospital with Ms Donaldson, but they had probably used it as a ‘belt and braces’ approach.

She said that Ms Donaldson had not wished to disclose the nature of the offence she had been arrested for to the medical staff.

Ms McConnell said: ‘With Ms Donaldson being present and able to speak on her own behalf … I would make no criticism of the officer as I think it’s an appropriate decision-call to make in the moment.’

The dancer worked alongside many of Strictly’s biggest stars including Kevin Clifton who she performed with

Detective Constable Benjamin Harris, of Hampshire Constabulary, who led the investigation into the accusation against Ms Donaldson, told the inquest that the complainant was interviewed on video about the allegation.

When asked by the coroner, Det Con Harris confirmed that the complainant had said that Ms Donaldson told them she would take her own life ‘if someone finds out’ about the allegation.

Det Con Harris said that he had considered the possibility that Ms Donaldson’s reported comments could be a ‘form of control’ against the complainant.

The court previously heard from Det Con Harris that the offences were ‘of a serious nature’ and the circumstances in which she had met the alleged victim and how that developed were ongoing.

‘Due to the nature of the offences from a police standpoint, we had the duty to make the arrest and question [whether] to put on our protection measures potentially protecting anyone who may have been made vulnerable from what had been reported to us,’ he said

Detective Constable Harris added that Ms Donaldson had made a no-comment interview, and police conducted an enhanced risk assessment of her because of the offences and the material that they had gone through during the interview.

The allegations were associated with a higher risk of suicide, he said.

Ms Donaldson performed on the ITV talent show Britain’s Got Talent in 2014 as part of the super-group Kings and Queens.

Other members of the troupe included Kai Widdrington and Neil and Katya Jones, all three of whom later became professional dancers on Strictly.

Ms Donaldson’s sister, Cara, previously said in a tribute in court: ‘Heart of gold, full of fun. Brought happiness to life, especially mine.

‘Career driven, adored her family, adored her friends, fantastic dance teacher, known in the community, to everybody and everybody loved her.’

Paying tribute at the time of her death, Strictly professional Mr Jones said Ms Donaldson was ‘like a big sister’.

He wrote: ‘Kerri Anne Donaldson – remember that name and please never forget it because it belongs to a woman who loved to dance, create and perform, she had the cheekiest laugh and a heart of gold.’

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