'Climategate' Professor Phil Jones 'considered suicide over email scandal'

But just as quickly discarded the idea. Perhaps he can check into the Betty Ford Clinic - they must have identified some kind of a syndrome for his behaviour.
Professor Phil Jones, the scientist at the centre of the "Climategate" leaked email scandal, has told how he considered suicide over the affair.

Phil Jones, the the academic at the centre of the climate change data row

Prof Jones, the head of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, said his "David Kelly moment" – a reference to the Government scientist who killed himself over WMD claims in the lead up to the Iraq war – came as death threats poured in from around the world.

Since the scandal broke on the eve of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December, he has lost a stone in weight and is on beta-blockers and sleeping pills.

However, the 57-year-old told The Sunday Times that suicide is now out of his mind.

“There were death threats,” he said. “People said I should go and kill myself. They said they knew where I lived. I did think about it, yes. About suicide. I thought about it several times, but I think I’ve got past that stage now.”
He said that his five-year-old granddaughter was instrumental in helping him through.
“I wanted to see her grow up," he said.
Prof Jones has stood aside as head of the CRU while a Norfolk police inquiry investigates thousands of emails and other documents stolen from the university's computer server and published on the internet. Read more.