DAUGHTER’S REGRET AFTER SHE

IT had sounded like drunken ranting – sickening, disturbing, but not to be taken seriously for a moment.

When Adele Johnson heard her mum’s ex making death threats, she dismissed them as self-pitying nonsense stemming from his broken heart.

Boozed-up Nigel McGrath said he wanted to stab Tracy Cockrell and “hang her from the balcony” – but as he had never actually been violent towards her, Adele did nothing.

But only four days later she was filled with horror and self-reproach when McGrath carried out his threat – killing Tracy and then committing suicide.

And now, facing her first Christmas without her mum, Adele says she will never forgive herself for failing to act.

Recalling the moment eight months ago when McGrath started raving at an isolated farmhouse, the 28-year-old said: “He’d had a lot to drink and was moaning about Mum.

“Then he stated, ‘I want to stab her in the head and hang her from the balcony’.

“I wish I’d done something. I should have listened and taken his threats more seriously. But I thought he was just drunk – I didn’t for one minute think he would hurt my precious mum.

“Now she is gone forever and I will never hear her laugh ever again. He has robbed me and my brothers of a mum and our children of a nana.

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