Defendant took own life after being ‘victimised’ over child sex allegations
A transgender woman took her own life after appearing in court charged with rape and sexual assault offences against children, an inquest has heard.
Maddison Wilson was found at East Battery, Castle Fields, on Southsea seafront in the early hours of February 14 2025. The 37-year-old had attended a preliminary hearing at Southampton Magistrates’ Court on February 12 and had been set to attend a further hearing at Southampton Crown Court on February 26.
The 37-year-old had been charged with rape of a girl aged under 13 and causing a girl aged five to engage in sexual activity, which were both alleged to have taken place in Hull, East Yorkshire, in 2011.
She had also been charged with the sexual assault of a three-year-old boy and causing a boy aged three to engage in sexual activity, with both offences alleged to have taken place in Southampton in 2017 and 2020.
The Portsmouth inquest heard that Ms Wilson, who the hearing was told was born Mark Anthony Charles Wilson, had undergone gender reassignment surgery in November 2024.
Her brother, Wolfie Wilson, told the hearing that she had called him at 7.50pm on February 13 saying that “her house was being attacked”, after details of the preliminary court hearing had been published on news websites and on social media.
He said: “She sounded panicked and breathing hard and heavy. She told me a neighbour had smashed her window.
“She said she was going for a walk and I told her not to do anything stupid.”
He added that she had asked him to look after her cats, and said: “Something didn’t feel right.”
Mr Wilson said that Ms Wilson had been “molested” as a child and said he did not believe the criminal allegations against her.
He said: “After everything she had been through as a child, why would she do it to anyone else. I believe Maddison was telling the truth.”
The inquest heard that police carried out a search for Ms Wilson and she was found to have taken her own life at the seafront location.
Coroner Christopher Wilkinson said that she was thought to have died at about 9pm to 9.30pm on February 13. He said that Ms Wilson had a history of depression and had “felt isolated” when she had returned to live in Portsmouth in 2020.
Mr Wilkinson said the publication of details of the criminal allegations, which had not yet been proven in the courts, had led to Ms Wilson being “victimised in relation to those offences that were alleged against her and the lifestyle she had chosen”.
He said: “Her property was identified and attacked with the breaking of her windows, which caused her to flee the property in a very frightened and distressed state.”
The coroner said a post-mortem examination had concluded she died of hanging and recorded a conclusion of suicide.
He stated that she “took her own life whilst suffering acute distress and chronic depression”.
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