Software boss killed himself believing wife had an affair
A MANAGING director killed himself after wrongly becoming convinced that his wife of 13 years was having an affair, an inquest has heard.
Phil Smith, 52, had moved out of the £1.5million home he shared with his wife Violetta a few days before his death, after he followed her and saw her with another man.
Convinced she was seeing someone else, he booked a rural chalet, turned off the tracker on his Range Rover and drove 37 miles before hanging himself from a roof beam.
The inquest heard Mr Smith, the managing director of Orbis Software, was a hardworking businessman who had built his own home next to Ferndown Golf Club in Dorset. He had two children from his first marriage and had been with his second wife, Violetta, with whom he had three daughters, for nearly 13 years. The inquest at Bournemouth heard that he became insecure and paranoid and believed, wrongly, his wife was having an affair.
Rachael Griffin, the Dorset senior coroner, recorded a verdict of suicide.