MP’s wife was found hanged on husband’s birthday
Former Cabinet minister arrived home to find police searching woods
THE wife of former Conservative Cabinet minister Owen Paterson was found dead in woodland on her husband’s 64th birthday, an inquest heard yesterday.
Rose Paterson – who had a history of depression and anxiety – had last been seen alive enjoying dinner with her son two days earlier.
Mr Paterson told a coroner he had only gone back to Parliament the week before the tragedy, after spending lockdown with his wife and their family at their country home near Ellesmere, Shropshire.
Mrs Paterson, 63, had been due to join him in London on his birthday to celebrate, and had a rail ticket to travel through France to visit their daughter, Evelyn, 28, the next day.
But the court heard the MP for North Shropshire raised the alarm the day before after four phone calls and two text messages to his wife, who was the chairman of Aintree racecourse, went unanswered.
In a statement read to the court by the coroner for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, John Ellery, Mr Paterson said of his wife: ‘The police have looked at her phone and internet history and she first searched about suicide on May 27.
She didn’t leave a note or tell anyone else that she intended to kill herself.’
Mr Paterson enjoyed a ‘normal weekend’ at home before leaving for London again on the morning of Monday, June 22.
He last spoke to his wife – who had been due to hold a remote Aintree board meeting on June 24 and left prepared notes for it on her desk – that evening in a ten-minute call.
He dialled 999 from his Commons office on the evening of June 23, after their younger son, Edward, 31, called to say he had not seen his mother all day and couldn’t reach her by phone.
Mr Paterson and his older son Felix, who lived in London, then drove home.
They arrived in Ellesmere shortly after midnight to find a ‘significant’ police search of woodland behind their home was under way.
Shrewsbury Coroner’s Court heard Mrs Paterson’s body was discovered by a police officer at 3.20am. Mr Paterson was taken to see his wife at daybreak before her body was recovered.
The MP, who attended the 25minute inquest with his family via a remote video link, told the court: ‘It was evident to me that Rose had taken her own life.’
The court heard Mrs Paterson had been ‘laughing’ over dinner with Edward the night before the alarm was raised. Edward said she had fallen asleep in a chair and that he woke her at around 10pm before heading upstairs himself – the last time she was seen alive.
His brother, Felix, 33, said, following the tragedy, he checked his mother’s laptop and noticed ‘three searches in relation to methods of suicide, two of which were as she was later found’.
Louise Lane, an equine instructor and a friend of Mrs Paterson, said her ‘happy-go-lucky’ friend of 30 years had acted out of character when they last met.
Miss Lane said on the evening of June 23, she noticed Mrs Paterson had not let the horses out as she usually would in hot weather, so she went to do it.
‘I saw Rose in the vegetable patch – she looked around and saw me but didn’t acknowledge me,’ Miss Lane’s statement said. ‘That was not like her.’ Mr Ellery recorded a conclusion of suicide.
In a statement released after the inquest, Mr Paterson – who served as Northern Ireland secretary and environment secretary under David Cameron – said he intended to become ‘more involved in suicide prevention strategies’ following his ‘tragic’ loss.
He said: ‘I am now horribly aware that 18 people commit suicide every day in the UK.
‘If I can help to prevent just one family going through the extreme anguish that our family is currently suffering, I will have done something really worthwhile,’ he added.
‘We were married for 40 very happy years. Rose will be remembered as a devoted, loving wife, mother and grandmother, as well as a most successful professional in her varied careers in the arts, charity and racing. We are still a long way from beginning to come to terms with her death.’
‘Devoted, loving mother’