The lonely longing for love

Philip Hunt, a lonely 58 year old man was in a very dark place. For the last few months, his life had become a nightmare and things were so bad that he could only see one way out. So he wrote and note and went to a nearby railway station in Yorkshire and lay down in front of a train.


Before his life fell apart, his future looked bright, he had found a beautiful woman on the internet called Rose and was looking forward to spending the rest of his life with her. Rose was young, rich and beautiful but she needed his help to transfer $2.9 million from Nigeria to the UK and then they could start their new life together. In the end he gave her $100,000. Now the Nigerian scammers have the money and Philip Hunt is dead.


Twice married, the cargo officer re-mortgaed his house, took out loans, ran up overdrafts and begged for cash from his employers after repeatedly transferring money across to Rose's account. In the end, he was so hopelessly bogged down in debt, he commited suicide.


Rose was a very pretty white brunette who said she was living in Nigeria. The romance began slowly at first but after some months, when he was completely hooked, she told him she was ill and desperately needed his help.


But there was more to the elaborate plan than love, there was a business opportunity that couldn't possibly fail. He actually went to London and met two Nigerian men who said they needed money for this new venture so he began wiring over money in December 2008. He even went to his employer and asked to borrow $50,000 but later decided against it and left his job. He left a note for police who found his body and hundreds of emails outlining the huge scale fraud.


A jury at the inquest returned a verdict of suicide. After the inquest a former girlfriend said 'Philip was a quiet and reserved gentleman and he was very intelligent which makes it all the more unbelievable that he fell for this but he was at a low ebb and they got him when he was most vulnerable'.

Loneliness is tragic and very painful, but surely being alone is better than this.