BRUTON: HAIRDRESSER CLAIMS CRASH WAS BIZARRE SUICIDE BID

A debt-ridden hairdresser accused of smashing his car into his ex-girlfriend’s front room in a failed murder mission said he wanted her to see his suicide because she was ‘the love in my life’.

Edmund Bruton, 42, planned to ‘take out as many people as possible’ when he drank a litre of anti-freeze and launched the 80mph attack on Tara Lavery while she was at home with four children, it is claimed.

The impact of his black Peugeot 206 demolished the lounge wall, injuring at least two youngsters who had made a ‘den’ in the front room, Inner London Crown Court has heard.

Bruton, who spent a fortnight in hospital being treated for serious injuries, denies attempted murder.

He told the jury: ‘I didn’t intend to kill anyone but myself.’

Bruton said he became suicidal and started hearing voices telling him he was ‘going to die’, after he was hit by a series of personal tragedies and the eight-month relationship went downhill.

On the afternoon of Saturday, February 26, this year he drank the toxic liquid and parked around the corner from his lover’s home in South View Avenue, Caversham, Reading.

He said he tried to phone Ms Lavery for support.

‘I took some tablets, finished off the anti-freeze and drove around the block two or three times,’ he said.

‘I had not got to speak to Tara.

‘I was very upset and I just didn’t feel right in myself.

‘I just drove around the block.

‘Eventually I placed a garden fork between the steering wheel and my neck.

‘Something just said to go and drive.

‘I drove. Tara’s house is at the end of Bryants Avenue and I crashed into Tara’s house.

‘I didn’t see Tara’s house.

‘I didn’t see anything in my way whatsoever.

‘I can’t explain that.

‘I just had these voices saying: ‘You’re going to die or you’re going to kill yourself.’

‘I know anti-freeze can make you more suicidal.

‘I think I used a screwdriver as well on the sun visor.

I think I rested into my eye socket area.

‘I just wanted to die and the only significant person in my life was Tara.

‘I just I wanted her to see I’d died.

‘She’d been the love in my life and she was the only person I was speaking to.

‘I thought as soon as I came into contact with a kerb or anything I would die.’

Bruton said he could not remember sending texts to Ms Lavery from the wreck, one of which said: ‘Will be waiting for you in hell.’

He added: ‘I love Tara to bits.

‘I’m absolutely gutted and distraught that such a lot of pain has come to her and her family.’

Bruton told how he had previously enjoyed a good lifestyle but was made redundant from his job with a pharmaceutical company in February 2010.

He opened Amo, his Wembley hair and beauty salon, but that ran into financial difficulties and he defaulted on a string of credit card debts.

The businessman, who had property investments in Northampton and Sheffield, said one of the flats went in to negative equity.

The couple got together that summer, and ‘got on incredibly well.’

He took her to an exclusive Soho hotel where he wrote ‘I love you Tara’ on the bed in rose petals.

But January this year they were having problems and he was under stress working 12-hour days, he said.

‘I was in quite a low state for a couple of months,’ he added.

The jury has heard he told Ms Lavery he would be ‘famous and in the newspapers by June.’

Bruton claimed he meant he was hoping to win an innovation award for his hair salon.

He said was still grieving for his father who died in February 2009, and then two days before the crash, his elderly mother was admitted to hospital.

It was that evening that jurors have heard he went to Reading to spy on Ms Lavery and thought he had discovered she was having an affair.

But he claimed: ‘I am not a jealous or possessive person.

‘I went to get some support from Tara.

‘She said if I ever wanted to come round for a cup of tea I could.

‘I didn’t get in.

‘I saw a figure walk from the front room to the back of the house.

‘I don’t know but I would guess it was a male.

‘Although Tara and I had a monogamous relationship I have been open to polyamory and open relationships.’

Bruton, of Harrow Road, Wembley, nw London, denies attempted murder of one or more of the occupants of (131) South View Avenue, Caversham, criminal damage with intent to endanger life in the same terms, criminal damage reckless as to whether life is endangered and dangerous driving.

The trial continues.

ends