Epsom College head shot dead by husband had wanted to leave him, her sister reveals
Emma Pattison, the head of Epsom College who was shot dead by her husband in a suspected murder suicide, was preparing to leave him, her sister has revealed.
In a series of letters and passages written after her sister and seven-year-old niece were killed in February, Deborah Kirk said she had regarded Emma’s relationship with husband George as abusive and believed she was a victim of coercive control.
She described how she had seen her sister the week before the tragedy and believed she had made her mind up to leave him and would emerge as a “success story” and a “survivor”.
In the letters, 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.”
Mrs Pattison, 45, had only recently been appointed head of Epsom College, one of the country’s leading independent schools, when she and her seven-year-old daughter, Lettie, were shot dead by her husband, George, a registered shotgun owner, who is then suspected of turning the gun on himself.
On the evening she died, Mrs Pattison made a distressed phone call to her sister saying there had been an altercation between her and her husband.
Mrs Kirk, a solicitor, immediately drove from her home in south-east London to Epsom, but by the time she and her husband arrived it was too late and all three were found dead at a property on the school grounds.
The inquests into the deaths had been due to take place in October but the coroner is awaiting further disclosure from Surrey Police and they have been delayed.
Mr Pattison, 39, a chartered accountant with a taste for fast cars, was born in Jamaica to an English father and a south-east Asian mother.
The couple married in 2011 and their daughter Lettie was born four years later.
Neighbours described them as a lovely family, but Mrs Kirk said her sister had been a victim of coercive control.
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.”
Mrs Kirk said in the aftermath of the tragedy she had found herself wondering if her sister had been killed because she had announced she was leaving her husband.
She also wrote: “I am still learning about this dreadful and complicated misery to which too many people, primarily women, are being subjected, but let’s be clear on the basics. Since 2015 coercive control is a crime in this country.”
In a piece written the day after receiving a “harrowing update” from the police about the investigation, Mrs Kirk said: “We thought we knew it all but we did not. We heard the story of our dearest girls and what they had suffered not just that evening but prior to it and it has introduced me to a new level of suffering.”
