Found hanged, grieving mum who couldn’t forgive herself
Two weeks after her only son died in house fire...
A MOTHER was f ound hanged after she refused to forgive herself for the death of her young son in a house fire, an inquest heard.
Two weeks earlier, Kelly-Anne Carter had tried to save eightyear-old Lucas, but was beaten back by the flames at her home.
Miss Carter, 35, was treated for her burns and was later discharged from hospital but was said to be guilt-stricken over her son’s death.
Sarah Blakey, Miss Carter’s best f riend, told the i nquest: ‘ She couldn’t forgive herself and didn’t want to be here without him.
‘He was her world … her greatest achievement and he was an absolute credit, a lovely little boy.’
The fire broke out just before 3am on October 30 last year, six months after Miss Carter and her son had moved into the semi- detached property in Sandbach, Cheshire.
She later told doctors she felt guilty because she had ‘lit candles, drunk alcohol and fallen asleep’ – but investigations into the fire are ongoing and the cause is unknown.
When fire crews arrived they found a frantic Miss Carter outside and Lucas in his bedroom. David Jack, who lived opposite, said at the time: ‘The front was completely engulfed in flames and the kitchen was also well alight. I managed to find a ladder to get round the back but as I reached the top window the patio doors blew out and I fell.’
Miss Carter and Lucas were taken to Leighton Hospital in Crewe, but the youngster died from his injuries hours later.
Two weeks later, Miss Carter is believed to have hanged herself at the home of her boyfriend Andrew Hough while he slept.
Describing the mother’s behaviour after being discharged on November 9, Miss Blakey said: ‘She was very up and down, very angry. She didn’t have the right medication that she should have had.’
The friend added that she called to see Miss Carter on Friday, November 11, the evening before she was found dead.
‘She was drinking brandy and she requested that she wanted some more pain relief,’ she added.
Miss Blakey told the inquest Miss Carter spoke of committing suicide ‘but not until after Lucas’s funeral’. She said: ‘I didn’t think she was going to do anything that night. I spent a couple of hours trying to get her more medication … Then she wanted something to eat so I helped her … She was calmer then – she was angry when I first got there.’
Mr Hough, 33, a site manager, told police: ‘Sarah left at around 11pm and I went to bed. Kelly was still watching TV. I came downstairs at 5am and she was asleep on the sofa. I woke her up and told her to come to bed and went back to bed. At 9.36am I went downstairs and as I got to the bottom step I saw Kelly.’
It emerged that before her death, Miss Carter, who worked at Waitrose, called herself a ‘dead woman walking’. She told a doctor: ‘I will feel responsible and no one will be able to stop that. I can’t live without my son.’
A medical assessment five days before her death said: ‘She feels responsible … as she had lit candles, drunk alcohol and fallen asleep. Kelly stated she could not live without her son. She was felt to be vulnerable due to psychiatric trauma.’
But psychiatrist Dr Sumit Sehgal, who treated Miss Carter for anxiety after the blaze, said: ‘She was a touch anguished, a touch angry, and she was sad.
‘Nonetheless … the impression was that she was undergoing
‘He was her world’ ‘Can’t live without him’
a normal grieving process.’ Police called to the scene said there were no suspicious circumstances around Miss Carter’s death.
At the time, her cousin Peter Kent said: ‘Kelly was a loving and exemplary mum … this has come as a devastating tragedy.’
Recording a suicide verdict, coroner Claire Welch said: ‘I can’t imagine the distress and trauma … Given the clear loss she was feeling, I’m satisfied that she did intend to take her life.’
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating claims officers were called to the house three hours before the blaze broke out.
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