Posted on 09/17/2003 7:09:36 AM PDT by bedolido
A mother listened on the phone as her estranged husband killed himself and their four young children, an inquest has heard.
Farm labourer Keith Young, 38, drove his boys Joshua, seven, Thomas, six, Callum, five and Daniel, three to a beauty spot near Llangollen, North Wales.
Mr Young, from Winsford, Cheshire, then gassed them by running a petrol lawnmower in the back of the family car.
He was separated from his wife Samantha but was seeing the boys on an access visit.
At an inquest in Wrexham, North East Wales, coroner John Hughes recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on the four boys and that Keith Young took his own life.
Mr Young's wife, who now goes by the name Samantha Tolley, had recently told him she was pregnant by another man.
Too late
The court heard how on the night of their deaths, March 27, 28-year-old Miss Tolley telephoned Mr Young after hearing he had threatened to kill the children.
Reading Miss Tolley's evidence, the coroner said: "You called him and he answered the phone. Without even saying hello he said: 'Save your breath'.
"You asked where he was and he said you don't need to know.
"You asked where the boys were and he said they were in the jeep with him."
Mr Young went on to say that even if she called the police, it was too late, they would never find him in time.
He added: "I hope you are happy. I hope you have a grudge against that baby for the rest of your life."
The inquest heard that Mr Young called the boys' mother again at 1.15am on March 28.
She listened in horror as he told Joshua to say goodbye and then informed her as each of the boys died. Goodbye
Mr Hughes, reading Miss Tolley's evidence, said: "Keith called you and you, in your desperation, told him you would get rid of the baby if he came home and you would make it work.
"He said 'It's too late, you would have me arrested'.
"You said 'It's not too late.
"He said 'It is too late, Dan's dead.
"You asked to speak to the others and Keith put Josh on the telephone. Just before he handed over the phone he said 'Say goodbye to your mum, tell her you love her'.
"And that is exactly what Josh, bless him, did."
Mr Hughes went on to say that the boys were petrified, but there was nothing Miss Tolley could do.
Mr Young began breathing heavily, and for 20 minutes Miss Tolley screamed into the phone in an attempt to wake them.
Stormy relationship
The four boys and their father were eventually found by police on the Horseshoe Path in Llangollen at around 2am on March 28.
The inquest heard that Mr Young and his wife had a stormy relationship, he assaulted her on a number of occasions but she took him back each time.
They married in June 2001 but the relationship deteriorated further and by January this year Miss Tolley had moved the boys to a council house in nearby Weaverham, Cheshire.
She started a new relationship and fell pregnant.
Speaking outside court, Miss Tolley's solicitor Sarah Lapsley said that her client would be tormented by the tragedy for the rest of her life.
She said: "Whilst the boys suffering has ended, their mother's torment continues on a daily basis and will do so for the rest of her life."
Last Updated: 06:57 UK, Wednesday September 17, 2003
This is beyond horible but why do women continue to bed and make children with who knows what??
A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones
Proverbs 12:4
Why does she need a lawyer when she is telling the inquest how her husband killed her kids and himself at a remote distance. I wonder if there is more to the story than that she is telling or the lawyers are hiding.
Girls need to be taught from before puberty that if their husband or boyfriend ever physically assaults them, they must leave him immediately and permanently. These thugs don't change if the little woman keeps crawling back to them. If they learn the hard way that one punch means the woman (and children, if any) is gone forever, at least some of them will figure out not to do it to their next woman.
My God.
This makes it sound like an illness, or that it happened spontaneously. The English have a strange way of stating things...
equating the cruel murder of four little children with becoming pregnant from someone other than your ex who beat the crap out of you shows a certain perverse attitude....
I suppose the proper thing for the mother to do was to just take all the assualts, and if she did have a fling, abort the baby quick to not upset the daddy here.....
geesh...
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