Millionaire facing indecency charges with two youths shoots himself dead
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Your support makes all the difference.A millionaire is believed to have killed himself days before he was due to be questioned about sex offences against two 15-year-old boys.
A millionaire is believed to have killed himself days before he was due to be questioned about sex offences against two 15-year-old boys.
John Potter, 49, who was found dead in his garage in Herne Bay, Kent, on Sunday with shotgun wounds to his head, had been arrested in Southampton on 11 May on suspicion of committing indecency offences with two youths, and was due to be interviewed by police in 16 days' time.
When police first visited Mr Potter to question him at his motorcycle dealership in Southampton, he is understood to have jumped from a first-floor window to avoid them, and was later taken to hospital with head injuries.
He was formally arrested later but was found to be not fit enough to be interviewed, and was later bailed until 25 August.
Mr Potter is reported to have made his fortune from a plastic mouldings company he set up in Kent. He then set up his motorcycle showroom three years ago but cut his links with the business after his arrest earlier this year.
The millionaire's family was at the scene of the fatal shooting when police arrived on Sunday, but details of the death were only released yesterday.
Mr Potter lived with his wife, his two sons and a daughter.
Speaking from the family house, Daniel - one of the sons - said: "We all loved him very much. My mother is devastated... It's a very stressful time for us and at the moment it doesn't seem real."
Faith Pauley, 39, who is head of the neighbourhood watch scheme in the area and lives a few doors away from the Potters' semi-detached house near the beach at Herne Bay, said: "It has come as a great shock to many people around here. Nobody had a bad word to say about him. He did seem depressed and under strain, but he was in a great deal of pain from his accident.
"I've known him for about four and a half years and he was a wonderful person and a great supporter of the functions we used to organise in the neighbourhood. He was fun-loving and a great man in the community."
Mr Potter's wife, Carol, was Mrs Pauley's deputy on the neighbourhood watch scheme.
Another neighbour, Sheila Macgregor, 58, said: "We do not know him very well but it is still something we would not consider. This is a caring community. It is such a tragedy that he is no longer around to defend himself."
A Hampshire Police spokeswoman said: "Hampshire Police were due to interview Mr Potter in relation to alleged indecency offences against two 15-year-old boys. He was due to report for bail on August 25. The inquiry against him has now been closed."
The death comes at the same time as another man accused of sex offences against children killed himself earlier this week.
James White, 54, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, died from an overdose of tablets last Sunday, the day before he was due to face charges of indecently assaulting girls.
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