Hanged dentist ‘abused husband and daughters’
Pushy mother waged war with her family and spiralled into violence, drinking and depression
A DENTIST found dead at her home was a pushy mother who ‘emotionally and physically’ abused her daughters and husband, an inquest heard yesterday.
Helen Nicoll, 53, is said to have put pressure on her children to excel, especially in music.
She was subject to a police investigation over an assault on her eldest daughter Georgia, 22. Her frustrations then turned to her middle child, Victoria, a talented cellist – and she refused to cook for her or talk to her after a bust-up.
She is said to have complained that her children – believed to be privately educated – called her names including ‘council estate scum’ and ‘Liverpool scum’ and that her husband did not defend her.
Mrs Nicoll was found hanged in the hallway of the family’s £1.5million home in June last year following a violent row with husband Stephen, a Harley Street dentist.
He was initially arrested on suspicion of her murder but was later released without charge.
Yesterday the 54-year-old told a coroner his wife was violent and that her behaviour had become increasingly erratic after a patient threatened to sue her.
In an astonishing hearing, he told how the first person he called after finding her body at 6am was his golf partner, to tell him he could not play that day. He then called his children and did not summon the emergency services to their six-bedroom house in the Cambridgeshire village of Great Wilbraham until 6.27am.
Mr Nicoll was initially arrested because of the delay in getting help after police found a bruise on his wife’s face. However, the inquest heard the injury was self-inflicted and officers said they believed that he was in fact the victim of domestic abuse.
Detective Inspector Jerry Waite told Cambridgeshire coroners’ court: ‘I believe Helen was emotionally as well as physically abusive to Georgia as well as Victoria.
‘I believe Stephen was a victim of domestic violence. There was friction between Helen and her daughter. Added to this she was extremely worried about the complaint against her.’ He added: ‘There was certainly substantial evidence that Mrs Nicoll had assaulted Georgia. The only reason we chose not to prosecute was because it wouldn’t have been in Georgia’s best interests to do that.’ Mr Nicoll said his wife’s behaviour changed after a patient of 20 years began trying to sue her in February last year.
She developed severe anxiety and depression and became paranoid her husband was having an affair, which he denied. He said she also started drinking more. Asked yesArriving terday why he didn’t dial 999 immediately after finding Mrs Nicoll’s body, he said: ‘The reason I didn’t call the emergency services is because she was dead and it was disrespectful to resuscitate her’.
He said the night before he and daughter Georgia had discussed their ‘worries’ about Mrs Nicoll’s increasingly erratic behaviour. home at 11.30pm, he saw his wife had drunk ‘all but an inch’ of a bottle of pinot noir. He said: ‘She walked up to me and said, “you have been talking about me to Georgia” and slapped me across the face.’
In an attack lasting 30 minutes, he said she continued hitting him before throwing his golf clubs over the fence and taking his car keys.
He said: ‘The only thing I did do was restrain her. At most I would hold her wrists to stop her hitting me.’ During the argument Mr Nicoll said his wife accused him of trying to ‘brainwash’ her children.
Eventually he went to bed where he said she continued elbowing and kicking him in the face as he curled up in a ball. At some point he claims Mrs Nicoll deliberately smashed her own head against the bed. ‘There had been a history of violence towards the children and the police investigation,’ he said.
‘As a result of that Helen was very aware of covering her tracks and she could see that my face was marked as a result of the injury.’ He said she took pictures of her own self-inflicted bruises and sent them to Georgia with the comment, ‘this is what you father did to me’.
In the early hours she put classical music on the radio. ‘My belief now is that she turned the radio on because she had decided that she was going to do something horrendous,’ he said. Mr Nicoll said his wife and Georgia had made up after the assault several years ago and were ‘very close’ at the time of her death.
Following the police investigation, Mrs Nicoll’s frustrations turned to Victoria.
The pair became estranged following a violent row in 2014 over her refusal to play cello in a concert because she had an exam the next day. Mrs Nicoll refused to apologise and would not cook or talk to her.
Mr Nicoll said she was ‘particular with the children’s attainment, particularly in music’, and ‘would put quite a lot of pressure on them’. He told the hearing the complaint from the patient was the ‘single thing’ that led to depression, her drinking and ultimately her death.
The inquest heard that Mrs Nicoll had also thought about leaving her husband. The Nicolls, who also have a son, met at The Royal Dental Hospital in London, where they qualified in 1984.
In 2000, he delivered their son in the car before they could get to a hospital. The couple worked together at a surgery near their home while he also worked in Harley Street. Pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary said Mrs Nicoll’s injuries were consistent with hanging. Assistant coroner Simon Milburn recorded a narrative verdict, saying she died of a ‘self-inflicted act’.
But Mrs Nicoll’s siblings disputed the picture painted of her during the hearing. They said in a statement afterwards: ‘There have been too many unanswered questions ... Helen’s death was a cry for help but it was a cry that would never be heard in the family household in which she lived.’
‘Refused to talk or cook for her’