An inquest has heard that Royal Navy Petty Officer Jon Errington Paxton, 38, took his own life aboard the minehunter HMS Cattistock in Portsmouth in April 2023, after taking weapon store keys from a sleeping colleague. The coroner concluded he had been overwhelmed by the collapse of his marriage, shame over a pending sexual assault allegation, and financial debts, despite the Royal Navy having kept him shoreside and non-operational at the time.

Paxton, from Arbroath in Scotland, had joined the Royal Navy in 2003 and was going through a divorce from his wife, Verity Wyng, while also facing an unresolved sexual assault charge, to which he had pleaded not guilty, following an incident at a bar. He had debts of around £25,000 and told his partner at the time, Clare Anderson, that "everybody was better off without him". Portsmouth Coroner's Court heard he suffered from depression and anxiety, and the coroner, Jason Pegg, ruled that the weapons and ammunition had been securely stored, with Paxton's death coming 12 years after another sailor took his own life on the same ship.