Man Beheads Himself With Chainsaw To Fight Eviction
Man cuts off own head with chainsaw after flat is earmarked to be bulldozed by developers
(Daily Mail UK)
A ‘vulnerable’ man cut off his own head with a chainsaw after being ordered to move out of his home to make way for developers, police believe.
David Phyall’s severed head was found beside the power tool inside his housing association flat shortly after receiving his eviction notice.
Detectives were today investigating the possibility that the 58-year-old killed himself rather than leave his home of eight years.
He was the last resident living on an estate earmarked for demolition. All 71 surrounding flats were empty.
Paramedics and police made the gruesome find after receiving a 999 call.
An inquest is now being carried out into the exact cause of death and what had happened to Mr Phyall, described as ‘vulnerable’, beforehand.
It is understood police are not treating his death as suspicious.
Mr Phyall had lived in his flat at Bishopstoke in Eastleigh, Eastley, Hants, since 2000 and was fighting to stay there despite plans to bulldoze the entire area and rebuild it.
Many flats had already been boarded up.
Mr Phyall rented the property from Atlantic Housing Ltd.
He had been unhappy since the plans to level the flats and rebuild them were passed in 2006.
It is thought that he may have even been served with an eviction notice issued through the courts shortly before his death.
An inquest opened and adjourned by deputy central Hampshire coroner Simon Burge.
It listed the possible cause of death of Mr Phyall as ‘complete transaction of the neck’ and ‘chainsaw wound to the neck.’
An ambulance service spokesman said: ‘We were called to an address in Bishopstoke to reports to a “concerns for welfare.”
‘A rapid response vehicle attended and a search found a patient had sustained serious injuries.’
Ron Turtle, chairman of the Stoke Residents’ Association, said there was one tenant left whom he believed to be a disabled man who rented a ground-floor flat from Atlantic Housing.
He said: ‘They had offered him several places that were similar but he just didn’t want to move. In the end they had to go to court.’
Lib Dem Bishopstoke Parish Council chairman Anne Winstanley said: ‘The last I heard they were still negotiating with him to try to provide what he required to move into as an alternative.
‘It sounds very tragic for whatever the reason he met his death.’
Councillor Winstanley added that Bodmin Road had become a target for vandalism and nuisance behaviour in recent months.
The flats are thought to have been built in the 1960s but Atlantic Housing had revealed it would cost them more to repair than rebuild.
Southampton building firm Drew Smith were awarded a 7.8m pounds contract to design and build 54 replacement flats and 24 houses.
Three of the flats at Bodmin Road had been purchased by tenants under the right to buy but were repurchased by Atlantic Housing to enable the redevelopment to take place.
Atlantic Housing was unavailable for comment.
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he sure taught them a lesson
July 16th, 2008 at 6:37 pmRemind me to mention that to my ex-wife next time there’s a problem.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:03 pmI hope to see this on You Tube, You gotta “man up” for sure to off yourself with a chain-saw, vroom vroom gurgle gurgle. Or just drink to much. You think he’d at least call the local TV to video him doing it on his front porch. I mean who would go through all that dramatic “traumatic” drama, at least he should of made some TV talking head puke, PUKE
in horror for his troubles.
This buds for you Mr. grind your head off with a chain-saw, Rock & Roll Dude
July 16th, 2008 at 7:03 pmI really don’t want to make light of this…but damn, a chainsaw?
“Clean-up on aisle 4″
July 16th, 2008 at 7:09 pmHEY! Just fer askin’–what size shoes did this guy wear?
July 16th, 2008 at 7:11 pmHow did he apply pressure on it to keep it working through his neck? I would think once it cut deep you would lose control. He held the switch on?
If your gonna go, go big.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:39 pm__________________________________
I can’t believe I thought of this…
He Duck taped the chainsaw to a table that could hold his weight and the chain bar was over the table edge…he started the saw and then laid across a couple of chairs placed back to back to each other, so that his center of gravity was well forward, towards the saw’s chain bar… and gravity took care of the rest.
_____________________________________
Damn my engineering mind…and I’m lousy at math…go figure.
Thank God for calculators.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:59 pmThat’ll show ‘em!!
Or, maybe not!!
And first place for this years Darwin award goes to…
David Phyall !! David won’t be accepting the award himself this year, in his place we have…
July 16th, 2008 at 8:21 pmAnd Samurai thought they were bad ass!
July 16th, 2008 at 8:56 pmThe things some people do to get ahead in this world…
July 16th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Sierrahome- Still helping Bash solve the B.C. severed foot caper?
July 16th, 2008 at 9:24 pm________________
I don’t know if the power was shut off but at least one homelite was burning.
So how’s Crazy doing in London?
Oh.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:28 pmFuckin Jim’s cookies
July 17th, 2008 at 5:14 amIf I can steal a line from KKK Byrd:
“BARBARIC! BARBARIC I TELL YOU!”
July 17th, 2008 at 6:23 am
More proof of the old adage: When faced with adversity, if you lose your head you’ll never get ahead. 
July 17th, 2008 at 10:14 amOr SLT.
Are you not suppose to stop after, well let’s say at least a 1/2 inch of cutting oneself? How can you possibilly keep going all the way through? Are you not dead by that point?
July 17th, 2008 at 10:55 amThis is weird and not right to say the least.
Like, dah!