Headteacher 'planned to leave husband' days before he shot whole family

11 December 2023 , 09:57

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Emma Pattison with her daughter Lettie (Image: PA)

A headteacher who was shot dead along with her daughter in a suspected murder-suicide planned to leave him just days earlier, her sister claims.

Emma Pattison, 45, her daughter Lettie, seven, and her husband George, 39, were all found dead at their home within Epsom College's grounds. Surrey Police confirmed a firearm was found at the scene and believe Mr Pattison shot his wife and daughter before killing himself on February 5.

Now Emma’s sister Deborah Kirk says she felt George was abusive and she had been the victim of coercive control. She revealed she had seen Emma a week before the deaths and believed that she had made the decision to leave him.

Emma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and daughter Lettie, seven (PA)

In letters written after the tragedy, published in The Sunday Times Magazine, she wrote: “I am trying to figure out what the lesson is here. It does not, for us, lie in ensuring they decide to leave – because she had, courageously, got that far.” She added: “I looked forward to having my sister back. I looked forward to her having a loving relationship and looking back at this with amazement that she endured it for so long.”

The three were found dead at their home after Mrs Pattison made a distressed call to her sister. The firearm at the scene was legally registered to Mr Pattison. Mrs Kirk had rushed with her husband from their home in south-east London to Epsom after receiving the call but they found the three already dead when they arrived.

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While some neighbours said afterwards that they appeared to be a normal family, Mrs Kirk claimed her sister was in an “abusive relationship” and she has been left wondering if she was killed because she said she was leaving her husband. She wrote: “I did see the relationship as abusive. I did and I told her so. I think though, the sound of any voice of a caring loved one saying the same thing over and over again is something one becomes deaf to.”

Mr Pattison, who was a fan of sports cars, was a chartered accountant who was born in Jamaica with an English father and a mother from south-east Asia. The two had got married in 2011 and their daughter was born four years later. The inquest into the deaths has been delayed from last October with the coroner still waiting for further disclosure from Surrey Police.

Tim Hanlon