A “white-collar” criminal linked to high-profile sports stars died after ingesting acid as he appeared in court, an inquest has heard.

Mark Marshall, also known as Mark Castley, died at St Thomas’ Hospital in London in June 2019 after an “incident” at a court two months earlier, a coroner said.

The Ministry of Justice has previously confirmed Mr Marshall, 55, poured acid over himself when he appeared in the dock at Inner London Crown Court in April 2016.

His former wife Theresa Mulberry told an inquest into his death on Monday that Mr Marshall was a “repeat offender with a history of mental illness and self-harm” while in police custody and in prison.

She described her ex-husband as “an extremely intelligent man”, adding that he was “perhaps too intelligent, which is what got him into trouble”.

“As a family… we can’t understand how Mark was allowed to enter the court and ended up dying,” she told Southwark Coroner’s Court.

Ms Mulberry said Mr Marshall, who was adopted, had a “good upbringing” with a “well-to-do family” and was privately educated.

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He became a high-level tennis coach and “mixed with high-profile sports people”, she added.

But after he was given a suspended sentence for a “monetary offence”, he spent “most of his life in and out of prison for monetary-related crimes”, Ms Mulberry told the court.

She said Mr Marshall was never convicted of “anything violent” but committed “white collar crime”, with the victims often “people you may know from the media”.

His offending also meant he “changed his name a lot”, she added.

“That was Mark’s life – in and out of prison,” Ms Mulberry told the court.

The inquest heard that Mr Marshall died on 26 June 2019 from multiple organ failure and had suffered damage to his oesophagus “due to acid ingestion”.

The jury was told there was CCTV evidence which showed Mr Marshall appearing to take a drink and going through security before he entered the courtroom.

Ms Mulberry, who attended the inquest with her son, said she had not spoken to Mr Marshall for a year before his death.

She told the court her former husband had been diagnosed with a narcissistic personality disorder and had self-harmed in the past to get himself moved from certain prisons.

She said there was a record of six suicide attempts by her ex-husband while he had been in prison.

He became “particularly unwell” after stabbing himself in the neck while in police custody for his last offence, she added.

The incident resulted in an embolism and he suffered a stroke and became “a different person”, Ms Mulberry said.

She said Mr Marshall would continually lose his phone and bank cards after the stabbing incident.

“He managed living at home on his own but his life was quite jumbled after 2016,” Ms Mulberry told the court.

The inquest before senior coroner Andrew Harris, which is due to last three weeks, was adjourned until Tuesday.

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