A construction worker wept as an inquest heard tod

A construction worker wept as an inquest heard today Tuesday
how his wife took an overdose of Paracetamol thinking that
their marriage was over.

The distraught husband said that he had left his wife ‘to think
things over’ after admitting an affair but had wanted to return.

Southwark Coroners Court in London heard that housewife
Christine Johnson, 51, took more than 40 of the over the counter
painkillers on September 21 this year and died two days later
from liver failure.

The mother of three left a note by her bedside which
read: ‘I love you all but I have made such a mess of things.

‘
She went on to say: ‘It’s all my fault,’ the court heard.

Coroner Sir Montague Levine recorded an open verdict into her
death saying that he was unconvinced that she had wanted to end
her life and she could have been making a ‘cry for help’.

Husband Patrick Johnson, of 6 Webb Road, Raunds, Wellingborough,
told the court that he had not told his wife that he wanted to
return home.

He said: ‘I left the house to think things over.

I did not live with this other woman although I did see her
during that time.

‘I needed a bit of peace and quiet on my own.

‘Thinking about it now, I know I would have gone back to her.

‘She was not aware of that and that’s a mistake I shall
have to live with,’ he said.

Mr Johnson said that he had tried to speak to his wife the day
that she took the pills but his son had answered the phone.

‘He told me that my ringing was just upsetting her,’ he said.

Sir Montague said that Paracetamol, if taken in overdose,
was a ‘sinister’ drug which attacked the liver and could cause
death days afterwards.

Mrs Johnson had been transferred to London’s Kings College
Hospital where she died.

The hospital is internationally famous for its liver unit
and receives cases of Paracetamol overdose from local hospitals
all over the country.

ENDS