A dog groomer who cared for pets belonging to soap stars took his own life after months of online abuse severely affected his mental health, an inquest heard.

Bailey Lister, 22, was described as a devoted animal lover. He died after enduring a sustained campaign of cruel and distressing messages from internet trolls.

Police were investigating the stream of online harassment when Bailey died on May 6, before the inquiry had been completed. Among the pets he looked after were dogs belonging to Coronation Street actors.

Known affectionately as Dr Doolittle, Bailey dedicated much of his life to animals. At 18, he established a sanctuary in Hambleton, near his home in Blackpool, Lancashire.

His passion for animal welfare began after he rescued a rat named Hugo. He later opened the facility to rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs and birds, naming the charity Hugo’s Small Animal Sanctuary.

Bailey’s dog-grooming clients included Daniel Brocklebank, the actor who plays vicar Billy Mayhew in Coronation Street.

However, financial difficulties eventually led to Bailey being evicted from the sanctuary site. The inquest at Blackpool Town Hall heard that the upheaval was followed by a wave of online abuse and harassment.

The messages had a profound effect on Bailey. In the 12 weeks before his death, he made five suicide attempts, the hearing was told.

He was later found dead at home after recording a farewell video addressed to his mother, sister and uncle.

Recording a conclusion of suicide, coroner Louise Rae said Bailey had not experienced significant mental health problems before December of the previous year. His condition then deteriorated amid financial pressures and a torrent of online criticism.

Ms Rae said: ‘Bailey had a deep concern for animals and devoted a significant amount of his time to their care.

‘He had run an animal sanctuary, and many of his hopes for the future were connected to working with animals.’

She added: ‘In the months before his death, Bailey faced difficulties relating to the sanctuary, together with the additional pressure of online criticism.

‘The evidence shows that Bailey was distressed by the criticism directed at the sanctuary. These issues were discussed with both police and mental health professionals.’

In describing the suicide attempts that followed, Ms Rae referred to Bailey’s words that ‘things had become too much’.

Mental health teams became involved, identifying financial worries and online harassment among the factors affecting his wellbeing.

With support from mental health professionals, Bailey’s condition later improved. He was looking forward to time with his animals and family, had recently passed his driving test and hoped to begin work at a zoo and as a dog warden.

However, the coroner said, in February, he received further threats and again experienced suicidal thoughts.

On 6 May, Bailey Snapchatted with his former partner Adam Latham, with whom he still lived, asking if they could rekindle their relationship. They both decided to move on, the inquest heard.

Mr Latham arrived at their Blackpool home, the following morning, to find Bailey’s body. He immediately called the police.

Det Insp Chris Hammond, senior investigating officer for Lancashire Police, told the inquest that Bailey had reported online harassment and his allegations were being investigated at the time of his death and as to whether the messages amounted to a criminal offence.

The officer said: ‘We would never be able to prove, to a criminal standard, that those messages were a substantial reason for Bailey’s death.’

He described some of the messages as ‘extremely critical’ of Bailey and ‘very critical of his running of the animal sanctuary’.

Speaking after the case, Bailey’s family said he was a huge Coronation Street fan and his ex-partner had proposed to him on the set of the soap.

His mother Leanne Lister, 41, said: ‘He started grooming for some of the soap stars in Manchester. He was so proud about that. He always did a very good job.’

But she added: ‘This group of women accused Bailey of all sorts, fraud and animal cruelty. It was relentless.

‘Bailey even turned himself in because it was all lies. He had done nothing wrong.

‘He loved animals, he would never harm them. He did not deserve the cowardly online bullying he endured.’

Ms Lister said she, Bailey’s sister Kadie, 20, and his uncle Luke Lister, 39, attended the inquest on Thursday, but remain dissatisfied with the police investigation into the cyber-bullying.

She added: ‘We would want a proper police investigation carried out against that group, but we think that now it is not going to happen.’

The family believes that Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust, which was responsible for his care, and Lancashire Constabulary should have liaised about the impact of online abuse on his mental state.

Each organisation was aware of the other’s involvement but chose not to communicate between themselves, she said.

Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust and Lancashire Constabulary were contacted for comment.

For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123, visit samaritans.org or thecalmzone.net 

This elegant-looking star was Hollywood’s leading heartthrob in 1980.

The American actor enjoyed a remarkable one-two career breakthrough that year, starring in a popular ABC sitcom while also landing a leading role in one of the decade’s biggest blockbuster film franchises.

He began his career on stage, appearing in productions including The Glass Menagerie and Richard III at San Diego’s renowned Old Globe Theatre. In the early 1970s, he relocated to Hollywood to pursue opportunities in film and television.

The once boyish heartthrob, now 79, made his screen debut in 1975 opposite James Garner in The Rockford Files.

He quickly built an impressive television résumé, appearing alongside some of the era’s biggest stars in hit shows such as Wonder Woman, The Streets of San Francisco, Laverne & Shirley, The Love Boat and Marcus Welby, MD.

By the close of the disco era, the Bethesda, Maryland native had secured the big-screen opportunity that would establish him as a bona fide movie star.

The veteran entertainer, whose once-brown hair is now streaked with silver, was recently photographed during a rare outing in Los Angeles.

Can you identify the actor?

The mystery star is Robert Hays.

Hays is best known for playing Ted Striker, the pilot with a “drinking problem,” in Airplane!, the hugely successful disaster-movie parody that also starred comedy legends Leslie Nielsen and Julie Hagerty.

That same year, Hays appeared in the highly rated but short-lived ABC sitcom Angie, a lighthearted comedy about newlyweds from very different backgrounds that ran from 1979 to 1980.

He eventually left the series to chase his major film opportunity after reading the script in the very setting that would inspire his breakthrough: an airplane.

‘There was something on every page that made me laugh out loud and the stewardess noticed,’ Hays told The Guardian in 2020. 

‘I gave it to her when I was done. She was very prim and proper, with her hair in a tight bun. I looked up the aisle and saw her sitting with the script on her lap. A little later, I saw her smiling. Then she started really chuckling. Soon her hair was coming undone and she was laughing uproariously. That’s a good sign.’

Despite the success of the 1982 follow-up Airplane II: The Sequel, Hays spent much of the decade appearing in underwhelming box-office releases. His credits included 1981’s Take This Job and Shove It with Barbara Hershey and 1985’s Cat’s Eye, which starred Drew Barrymore.

By 1991, Hays was married to singer and actress Cherie Currie, the “Cherry Bomb” vocalist from the influential 1970s rock band The Runaways, which also featured a teenage Joan Jett.

The platinum-blonde singer and actress had co-starred with Jodie Foster in Adrian Lyne’s 1980 film Foxes and later appeared in Steven Spielberg’s 1983 reboot of The Twilight Zone.

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Hays and Currie divorced in 1997 after seven years of marriage. They have one son, singer and actor Jake Hays, who is 35.

One major piece of Hays-related trivia: As Hollywood legend has it, he beat out none other than late night talkshow icon David Letterman for his most famous leading role. 

Letterman, 79, said he initially resisted doing the screen test for Airplane!, telling his agent: ‘I just don’t act,’ but eventually agreed to give it a shot.

Over the course of eight hours, the obviously nervous Indiana native recited a wacky monologue from the movie involving a wartime raid, a brick-fireplace apartment and a shell-shocked soldier who thought he was Broadway belter Ethel Merman. 

The role, of course, went to Hays, and the film went on to gross more than $171 million-on a production budget of only $3.5 million-in its initial box office run, according to Airplane creators David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker

Years later in 1982, Letterman’s infamously awkward screen test footage resurfaced and was milked for laughs when Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker appeared on the first incarnation of the comic’s NBC Late Night show.

As film and TV roles slowed down, Hays segued into some topnotch voice acting, including a run as Tony Stark in Marvel Comics’ 1994 animated TV series adaptation of Iron Man.

Hays returned to features as father figure Bob Seaver of the popular Homeward Bound family film franchise in 1993 and 1996, respectively.

He ushered in the 2000s by joining the all-star ensemble cast of Robert Altman’s Dr T & the Women with Richard Gere, Laura Dern, Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett and Kate Hudson.

The decade continued at a steady clip with a recurring role as Hyde’s dad in FOX’s That ’70s Show, as well as parts opposite Bette Midler in her eponymous 2001 CBS sitcom, and a 2002 turn opposite Charlie Sheen and Heather Locklear in the post-Michael J Fox iteration of ABC’s Spin City.

The veteran performer reunited with his Airplane! co-director, David Zucker, for a slapstick TV ad promoting tourism in Wisconsin in 2013.

Hays and Zucker also joined forces for the 2008 genre parody Superhero Movie!, which reunited them both with Leslie Nielsen.

Hays continues to work sporadically, including a September 2026 guest star spot in MeTV’s Toon with Me. 

He also continues to collab with his co-star Hagerty in the Airplane! Live Tour, a collab they both recently discussed on Phil Rosenthal’s Naked Lunch podcast. 

A farmer strangled his churchwarden father and buried his body on the family farm after becoming afraid that the property would be handed to someone else, an inquest heard.

Charles Wright, 52, had a “blazing row” with his 82-year-old father, Brian, about the future of Hall Farm near Newark, Nottinghamshire. He later described seeing a “flash of red” before dragging his father from a car and strangling him.

In a voice note recorded on his mobile phone, Wright said his father—who was a churchwarden at St Bartholomew’s Church in Langford and had served on Winthorpe with Langford Parish Council—was “thinking of replacing him” and giving “the lion’s share of the farm to another family member”.

In the recording, he said: “I just had a flash of red and after 25 years and everything I have given him, he was just cutting me out like that.

“I just saw red, dragged him out of the car and throttled him.”

Wright also said in the recording that he planned to take his own life.

The voice note was sent to police on November 22 last year, two days after Brian Wright had been reported missing.

That same day, Wright drove towards his brother James as he ran with a friend, “causing injury”. Brian’s body was later discovered in an outbuilding on the farm.

An inquest into the double tragedy at Nottingham Coroner’s Court concluded this afternoon, with Senior Coroner Mairin Casey finding that Brian Wright had been unlawfully killed and his son had died by suicide.

Addressing family members attending in person and by video link, she said: “The horror of this, I’m clear in my mind, will have affected all of those who have survived in a very deep and painful way.”

The inquest heard that Brian Wright had called his son “useless”, “not capable of farming” and said it was a “mistake to let him farm that land” during an “enormous blazing row”.

Detective Chief Inspector Ruby Burrow, of Nottinghamshire Police, described the voice note to the inquest. She said: “Charles stated that he had killed his father and intended to kill himself.

“He described that his father Brian had criticised him and there had been a disagreement about finances.

“He stated he had buried his father Brian on the family farm.”

Brian Wright was reported missing to police shortly before midnight on November 20 after he failed to take his wife to a hospital appointment, the inquest heard.

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The next day, Wright, his brother James and a mechanic who worked on the family farm spoke to police.

DCI Burrow told the inquest that Wright, who was interviewed the day before taking his own life, was able to describe “difficult family dynamics and difficulties in relationships over the years”, including disputes over finances and working arrangements on the farm.

“He described an argument he had had with his father. He described his father had been critical towards him and he, himself, had taken some time to calm down,” she said.

Wright told police his father had ‘left in the opposite direction’ after what he described as a ‘small argument’, the court heard.

Later on November 21, Brian Wright’s vehicle was reported as being seen ‘out of place’ where it had been left overnight, and his body was found buried on the farm in a shallow grave four days later.

His cause of death was found to be pressure applied to the neck, the inquest heard.

DCI Burrow also said there had been a report on November 22 of ‘a collision between a vehicle and two gentlemen’, where the vehicle was driven at them ‘apparently deliberately’.

She said Charles Wright had driven at his brother James Wright, who was running with his friend, ‘causing injury’.

Charles Wright took his own life later that day and his body was found in an outbuilding area on Hall Farm, with his father found three days later.

The court heard there had been prior tensions at the farm which resulted in a firearms licence being withdrawn from an unnamed family member for a period of time because of concerns firearms ‘could be used inappropriately because of tensions within the family’. 

DCI Burrow said: ‘The evidence shows that Charles Wright murdered his father, and that there was no third-party involvement in the death.

‘The evidence showed [Charles] took his own life, and that there was no third-party involvement in that either.’

Ms Casey described it as ‘a truly tragic case’, and offered her condolences to the family.

‘Whatever tensions there may have been leading to this tragedy, we have here the loss of two men, who were fathers to surviving children, and a grandfather,’ she added.

For confidential support, contact the Samaritans on 116 123.