Couple died after making suicide pact, inquest hears

A husband took his own life almost a month after his wife died from an overdose during a failed joint suicide bid, an inquest heard today.

Brian Ing was found dead in bed at his flat in St Chad's Road in Maidenhead on August 17 after taking a cocktail of pills.

The 45-year-old's wife Dawn had died in the same bed on July 20 after taking an overdose as part of a suicide pact which her husband survived.

The inquest at Windsor Guildhall this morning was told the couple, who married in 1993, had both suffered with mental health conditions.

They made a pact to take their own lives together and went to bed on July 19 having each taken large quantities of their own medication.

But Mr Ing awoke some time later on his bathroom floor and called an ambulance for his wife, 42, who was declared dead by paramedics. It is not known how Mr Ing got to the bathroom from the bedroom.

He was treated at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading before being sectioned on July 27 and transfered to Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot.

On August 16 he was deemed well enough to be allowed out for an overnight stay at his flat, where he took another overdose and later died.

His body was found when a member of the mental health team called round to take him back to hospital for an appointment.

Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford recorded narrative verdicts for both Mr and Mrs Ing after questions were raised about the mental health care both had received before their deaths.

See next Thursday's Advertiser for a full report.