Apparently the assault was very out of character for John. He had no previous dealings with the police. His family and friends stress what a lovely man he was. He was far from being a hardened criminal. There must have been something else in the background to hav caused the assault. If the victim of the assault is in witness protection he’s presumably not being protected from John. So who is he being protected from?
if something out of the ordinary caused the assault incident to occur that was probably also a major factor in whatever stress is stated that John was under leading up to his disappearance.
if he committed suicide though, why go to trouble of going on a train to Dovercourt. It seems like he was travelling with some sort of purpose. To meet someone or find a boat?
it seems like there is something else going on here and it feels very sad
