Kevin Sutherland’s Shocking Last Words—“Dan Wootton Won!”—Before Taking His Own Life.
Kevin Sutherland was 33 when he leaped from a suspension bridge in Edinburgh on the 19th of December 2024, taking his own life and forging his own path to peace. Why? It’s a question you’re right to be asking.
Kevin endured a childhood shaped by the deepest underbelly of hell and by the darkest corners of human cruelty—and neglect.
In October 2022, he courageously shared his testimony detailing the heinous abuse and sexual assaults he suffered whilst in care. Life unraveled once more when issues arose in late 2023, surrounding Kevins name being PUBLISHED online along with the descriptive details of his ordeal—something which he was not fore warned of at the time of giving his statement, which fuelled his decision to waive his anonymity at that time.
When his attention was brought to the information visibly online and with his pleas of anonymity—backed by his Dr— denied time and time again by SCAI chair Lady Smith, it set Kevin on a downward spiral of despair saying he “felt like I was being held hostage by redacting extremely stigmatic information which had a major impact on my life. But yet choosing to keep hidden details concerning a previous court case from back in 2010.” Not ONLY that, but when Lady Smith DID consider redactions, she only “suggested removing some reference to police officers and a procurator fiscal.” It was in Kevin’s own words “the final nail in my coffin” with the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry failing him on an unprecedented level.
Kevin’s journey through care saw him moved from Edinburgh, Musselburgh, East Lothian, Paisley and Renfrewshire, with each new placement bringing further pain and destruction on top of a boy who was ALREADY pained and destroyed! These, unthinkable and PREVENTABLE tragedies put Kevin on the agonising path of being an escort.
On Sunday the 9th of November 2014 Kevin attended the MTV Music Awards in Glasgow, it was an evening he thought he would be able to recollect forever with lasting great memories; sadly it wasn’t to be the case.
That was the night he met Dan Wootton, and that’s the night Dan Wootton met “the person he already knew,”—Kevin.
Despite NEVER having met BEFORE that evening—other than a passing glance as Kevin used the elevator to return to his room—Kevin was taken by COMPLETE shock that this stranger knew aspects of his life—particularly details that WEREN’T in the public domain!
In Kevin’s own words, “Dan knew a lot about me on this chance encounter, we had never met before that night” and “He(Dan) had done his homework on all well-established escorts at this time, which was very clear to me in the conversation that took place”
The conversation ranged from the hell Kevin went through growing up, and even went surprisingly far as to his time spent in prison due to extortion; which he said “was a set of complex circumstances on how all this started and transpired when I was a 15 year old who ran away from care, which continued until I was 19.”
Due to those involved in the extortion, VERY LIMITED details surrounding it have EVER been released. So how did Dan gather SO MUCH information SO SOON on Kevin? PARTICULARLY as he had ONLY briefly seen him that VERY night?
During the discussion, Kevin mentioned that Dan tried to hire him as an escort, but he told him “I made it clear to Dan that I was on a personal night out and I was not here to do that.”
Unfortunately for Kevin he stated his voice didn’t matter to Dan, Kevin recalled the horrifying encounter saying “this dangerous man drugged and aggressively raped me in the most degrading way calling me a ‘worthless nameless piece of sh*t’”
The next day Kevin said he received a phone call from an unknown person, but whom he understood to be someone who was following orders from Dan to “make it clear” to him that he “better never speak out on what happened”
The unknown caller left no room for doubt, making it unequivocally clear to Kevin exactly what path would be taken, should he ever dare to speak out against Dan. During their brief conversation, the stranger weaponised Kevin’s past—his history of child abuse, struggles with mental health, convictions, and escort work—to paint a chilling picture of the lengths they would go to discredit his truth.
Despite these threats, Kevin demonstrated immense courage by approaching the police in 2021 to report the assault. Unfortunately, action is still to be taken.
No action, no action, no action, time and time and time again throughout this young man’s life. It’s almost like he was written off by the system AT BIRTH and just—tossed out to stagnate in pastures open to all kinds of predators! It’s an utter disgrace that we can treat other living beings so abysmally—for instance the SCAI DENIED Kevin’s EVERY request for anonymity which WOULD have given him his life back.
Yet on the DAY he takes his own LIFE, they REMOVE the page ENTIRELY! Kevin killed himself over something that took someone all of 5 mins to do, now his family and friends are left to carry his pain—whilst grappling with the grief and agony his absence now brings.
To many, Kevin’s absence is a wound that will never heal. His death was avoidable—yet it happened. Lady Smith, your resignation isn’t just expected; it’s a moral imperative. It’s the very least you owe. Kevin spent his life watching his perpetrators evade accountability for the atrocities they committed against him. He does NOT deserve that same punishment in death!
