Epsom College headteacher and husband had marriage counselling before 'murder-suicide'
11 February 2023, 10:26 | Updated: 11 February 2023, 15:26
Epsom college's headteacher and her husband - who police believe shot himself after murdering his wife and young daughter - had marriage counselling before he turned on his family.
Headteacher Emma Pattison was found dead alongside her husband George and daughter Lettie, 7, at their home on the site of Epsom College last Sunday.
The couple had been living apart in the weeks before their deaths, according to reports, after it emerged Ms Pattison was arrested for allegedly hitting her husband in 2016.
During her arrest, Ms Pattison told police the couple had been undergoing counselling to overcome their marital problems, according to the Mail.
A number of details have emerged about the Pattisons' since last week's 'murder-suicide', including George Pattison's failed wine business.
Pattison, 39, was "desperate to do something better" than being an accountant and tried to set up a "specialist importer of high quality, low yield wines" called Castle Street Vintners.
A presentation for the company, which he set up with an Australian friend, said he was a "career accountant desperate to do something better with his days", according to a pack found by The Telegraph.
The pitch said the pair decided to start the company after a trip to buy wine in the Alsace region of France and in Germany, and after a blind taste test with friends and family "proved that Fritz Waßmer's wines are very popular".
"My love affair with wine started on my first trip to Burgundy, where I found a few wines that not only captured the natural characteristics of the grapes but elevated them – this was a life-changing experience for me," Pattison wrote.
He went on to open Rees Charles Capital Limited, a wine wholesale company in 2012. It owed £318 by 2014, the most recent year shown in accounts, and it was voluntarily struck off in 2016.
It follows the news that Mrs Pattison, 45, made a distressed phone call to her sister Deborah Kirk in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The call was urgent enough for Ms Kirk to immediately drive out to check on her sister in Surrey. After arriving at the school, she discovered the body of her sister, alongside those of her husband George and seven-year-old Lettie.
Police are treating the incident as a homicide investigation and now believe Mr Pattison shot both his wife and his child before turning the gun on himself in what's branded a 'murder-suicide'.
