Inquiry into death of con woman who drove mother and daughter to suicide

An investigation is to be held into the death of a con woman who drove a mother and daughter to suicide because of a blackmail plot.

Linsey Cotton died while serving a jail term for “menacing” and duping Margaret and Nicola Mcdonough.

The pair killed themselves after Cotton convinced them they would be killed or jailed for life for breaking a nonexistent confidentiality clause relating to a person she had made up.

Cotton, who was 33, was found unwell in her cell at Saughton prison in Edinburgh in March 2016. She was taken to hospital where she died and her death certificate revealed she had suffered a blood clot.

Now it has been announced that a sheriff will investigate thecircumstancesofherdeath at a fatal accident inquiry.

A preliminary hearing is due to be held at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on 29 October.

The mother-of-two, from Addiewell, West Lothian, was only six months into a three-

year sentence for conning the pair.

She created a character called Stephanie Wilson or Johnstone and convinced the mother and daughter, aged 52 and 23, they faced jailorevenmurderfortalking about a medical trial to which she claimed the fictitious Stephanie was linked.

In desperation at the threats,margaret,whowas a foster carer and former Liberal Democrat council candidate, and Nicola, a social work graduate, formed a suicide pact and took their own lives at the Premier Inn in Greenock, Renfrewshire, in May 2013.

Over the course of a year,

Cotton had tricked Margaret’s son Michael out of £5,000 and expensive gifts, including an engagement ring. She also tried to get £5,500 from Margaret and Nicola, of Paisley.

The fraudster met Mr Mcdonough online in 2012 and, using photos of her stepsister’s daughter, lured him into her fantasy world, convincing him he was in a relationship with the woman she had invented.

She convinced him and his family “Steph” was in jail, then critically ill and being cared for by a fictitious company.

Jailing Cotton, who admitted fraud, Paisley Sheriff Robert Fife branded her a “wicked” liar.