Sister of Epsom College head shot dead by husband is 'trying to forgive him' for killing his wife and daughter
30 July 2024, 16:01 | Updated: 30 July 2024, 16:04
The sister of the headteacher of Epsom College, who was killed by her husband along with their daughter, has said she is trying to forgive him.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Emma Pattison, who ran the prestigious private school in Surrey, was shot dead along with her seven-year-old daughter Lettie by George Pattison, 39, in February 2023.
Ms Pattison, 45, died of shotgun wounds to the chest and abdomen, while Lettie was shot in the head. Mr Pattison then killed himself.
Mrs Pattison, Deborah Kirk's sister of Mrs Pattison, read out a tribute to her sister and niece at the inquest.
She said: "Emma was lightness itself," she said, adding that her sister was "smart" and kind in a way that "fills a room" and "drives change".
She described her niece, Lettie, as "razor smart, curious, and disarmingly cute". She said she would comfort her niece whenever she was sad.
"I would hold her in my arms and say, 'yes it is hard to be seven, isn't it monkey?'" she said.
Ms Kirk said she was still trying to forgive Mr Pattison.
"I can only speak for myself when I say that I am trying to forgive you," she said. She added: "I can only imagine that you were in an extraordinary hell of your own."
The inquest heard that Mr Pattison had a firearm licence for the shotgun used in the killings, but medical records showing that he had been prescribed anxiety medication were not available to the police as he used an online doctor.
Senior coroner Richard Travers described this as a "lacuna" in the legislation, and said he would conduct a prevention of future deaths report into the matter.
Earlier on Tuesday, evidence from Ms Kirk was read to the inquest in Woking.
She said she received a phone call from her sister just before 11pm on February 4, telling her that Mr Pattison had hit her and their dog, Bella.
She said her sister told her "I need someone to come over" and that her tone of voice was one of "concern, but not of terror".
"It was more like she had assessed the situation and did not feel safe," Ms Kirk said.
She said she and her husband, Mark Miller, got an Uber to her sister's home just after 11pm.
"I kept trying to call Emma but there was still no answer," Ms Kirk said.
She added: "By the time we had arrived at Emma's house I was getting really worried that she was not answering her phone."
When they arrived at the house, all of the lights were on and the cars were in the driveway.
Her husband went in the house first and then stopped her from going in any further once she entered.
"He said 'Don't go in there, don't go in there, we are going outside'," she said.
Her husband called an ambulance and paramedics arrived shortly afterwards.
The inquest heard that Mrs Pattison watched rugby with her friends in the hours before she died.
The last friend left at 7pm and Mrs Pattison then received a Chinese takeaway at 9.36pm.
In evidence read to the court by the coroner, the delivery driver said: "She had a smiley face and seemed OK."
The inquest heard that a post-mortem examination report found that Mr Pattison's cause of death was a shotgun wound.
It also found that Mrs Pattison and Lettie's causes of death were shotgun wounds.
A toxicology report found that Mr Pattison had 243 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, a quantity that is associated with a "high to extreme" level of intoxication.
