Mother took own life after her son died in house fire

A WOMAN whose eight-yearold son died in a house fire killed herself because she could not go on without him, an inquest has found.

Lucas Carter died in the fire at the family home in Sandbach, Cheshire, on October 30 last year. His mother Kelly-Anne, 35, suffered serious burns in the blaze and was described by onlookers as screaming outside while firefighters went in to rescue her son from the property.

An inquest at Crewe Municipal Buildings heard her partner Andrew Hough found her hanged at his home on November 12, 2016. Miss Carter’s friend Sarah Blakey told the court the mother of one had described herself as a “dead woman walking”.

Recording a verdict of suicide, area coroner for Cheshire Claire Welch said: “I can’t imagine the distress and trauma that she must have been going through at this time.”

Miss Blakey said she had seen Miss Carter the night before she died and noticed she had tied knots in her dressing gown cord, which she later used to hang herself.

She said: “She didn’t want to be here without Lucas, she couldn’t forgive herself.

“He was her world. To her he was her greatest achievement and he was lovely, he was an absolute credit.”

The court was told Miss Carter had been discharged from hospital three days before her death despite reportedly earlier telling staff she would hang herself or overdose once she was back home.

Medical notes recording her comments were not passed over when she was detained under the Mental Health Act and transferred to Macclesfield Hospital from the burns unit at Wythenshawe Hospital on November 7, the inquest heard.

General manager at Cheshire and Wirral Partnership (CWP) NHS Foundation Trust Sally Sanderson said the notes were missed because a change in IT system meant the assessment recorded by Cheshire East Council could not be accessed by CWP staff.

But the coroner said the mistake did not contribute to Miss Carter’s death.