Husband shot himself and his wife after reaching ‘end of his tether’ over gipsy camp plans
A RETIRED managing director at the ‘end of his tether’ over his wife’s Alzheimer’s and plans for a traveller camp near their home shot her dead before killing himself, an inquest heard yesterday.
Pensioners John and Elizabeth Knott lived in an ‘idyllic’ £500,000 retirement cottage in the village of Bosbury, near Ledbury in Herefordshire.
But Mr Knott, 71, had been struggling to cope after his wife developed Alzheimer’s disease and a travelling family bought a plot of land next door.
He had spent months battling plans for the traveller encampment on the land – which he feared would knock thousands off the value of his home – and kept a file ‘three inches thick’ on the planning proposals.
On top of that, he faced the growing strain of caring for his 70-year-old wife, who was known as Anne. Last August the pressure got so much he shot her dead before turning the gun on himself, the inquest in Herefordshire was told.
The Knotts had moved to picturesque Bosbury from Droitwich, Worcestershire, after Mr Knott’s retirement in 2006.
They were both active members of local community groups including a rambling club. Mrs Knott helped put together the village newsletter and her husband had worked as a church warden.
But in his final months, Mr Knott had
‘He lost a lot of weight
and was agitated’
been battling an application for planning permission to turn part of a paddock near to their 300-year-old cottage into a caravan park for travellers.
It was to be the second traveller site within a small radius after plans were approved in 2012 for another camp on the other side of the Knotts’ property, separated from them by woodland. Two caravans and a day room were installed on that site.
Detective Sergeant Tim Powell told the hearing the second camp was ‘clearly a concern’ to Mr Knott. He said: ‘He set about a very professional and comprehensive argument against this planning permission. It was to build a wash house, outhouses and three caravans.’
Six weeks before his death, Mr Knott wrote a letter to council planners objecting to the proposals. It said: ‘There are at least eight settled (traveller) families within a one-mile radius of the proposed site. The area cannot sustain any more.’ Planning permission has now been granted, and diggers and construction vans were parked on the site yesterday – which has a ‘sold’ sign on display.
One of Mr Knott’s neighbours said: ‘ He was a nice bloke but he was really troubled by the gipsy thing going on. We noticed a big change in him when this started ... he felt very strongly about it.’
The family who applied for planning permission were well-known in the area, with several traveller sites. Friends said Mr Knott was worried that his home would plummet in value due to the camps, having been told by property experts they could knock up to £125,000 off the price.
Since the couple died their cottage has been sold for £349,000, according to property website Rightmove.
While fighting the plans, Mr Knott was also caring for his wife of 37 years as her Alzheimer’s worsened.
She had reportedly begun hallucinating and suffering from paranoia and ‘irritability’. When she was eventually put into a nursing home for four days in August 2014, she ‘hated’ it, and anguished Mr Knott brought her home days before killing her.
He had felt guilty about leaving her there, it was claimed. Friends said the couple were ‘lost’ without one another and it is believed they had made a pact to die together.
Mr Knott, the former managing director of Ashford Construction in Birmingham, ‘worshipped’ his wife, the inquest heard.
Close friend Elizabeth Keatley told the hearing: ‘He would do absolutely anything for her within his powers, and sometimes outside his powers.
‘He was getting to the end of his tether. He said he lost his wife and she physically was not there. She was not mentally, emotionally there as well. He was lost without her.’
She said she went to visit the couple last July, adding: ‘John had lost a lot of weight and he was quite agitated. He had got too much to do, had too many things running through his head. I think he was not coping.’ Elizabeth Jane Conway, Mrs Knott’s daughter and Mr Knott’s step-daughter, described her mother’s downward spiral, saying: ‘She seemed to age very quickly ... at times she didn’t recognise her family.
‘Mum and dad adored one another. I was shocked but not surprised.
‘Mum didn’t want to continue to live like that, and my dad couldn’t see a life without my mum.’
On August 11, Mr Knott led his wife to his workshop in their garage, locked the door from the inside and removed its handle. Their bodies were found near a single-barrel shotgun by police after Mrs Conway, 48, called in and could not find them. No suicide note was found.
Deputy Herefordshire Coroner Roland Wooderson recorded a verdict of unlawful killing for Mrs Knott and suicide for her husband.