Graduate took own life after 200 job refusals

A MAN with degrees from Oxford and Reading universities, four A-levels and 10 O-levels killed himself because he could not get a job after making 200 applications, a coroner's court in Hull was told yesterday.

The North Humberside coroner, Peter Gladwin, described the death of Stephen Royals, 34, as 'tragic' and read his CV out in court. Recording a verdict of suicide, he said: 'I think it is tragic that society cannot make better use of a person with such a brilliant mind as Stephen Royals had.'

Mr Royals, of Rhyl in North Wales, was found dead in his car on the banks of the River Humber near Hull on 14 August last year. A hosepipe led from the exhaust into the car. He had last been seen at a job club in his home town the preceding day.