EL-TAHRY: TORMENTED MOTHER KILLED HERSELF AS DAUGHTER PLANNED FOR UNI
A mother hung herself just minutes after telling her depressed teenage daughter she would commit suicide unless the girl ‘sorted herself out’, an inquest heard today (Weds)
Katie El-Tahry, 47, was said to have been tormented by childhood abuse and was worried that daughter Hannah was also becoming depressed, Westminster Coroner’s Court heard.
She had also struggled to cope with the imminent departure of her 18-year-old daughter, who was due to start a university course, plus the sale of her flat in Hyde Park Square, Paddington, west London, it was said.
The inquest heard that Ms El-Tahry, who was twice divorced, went in to Hannah’s room on the evening of May 2, threatening to commit suicide ‘if she didn’t sort herself out’.
The girl emerged from her room at around 8.15pm and found her mother hanging from a banister with bedsheets around her neck.
PC Andrew Marchant said members of the public had called 999 to report a ‘hysterical female’ in the street immediately following her discovery.
Paramedics arrived minutes later but pronounced Ms El-Tahry dead at the scene.
After searching the property, PC Marchant said he found a suicide note on a kitchen worktop, giving details of her inheritance.
A subsequent post-mortem examination found no trace of drugs in her body, but recorded a blood-alcohol level of 44mg per 100ml – around half the legal drink-drive limit – and the pathologist gave the cause of death as hanging.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said Ms El-Tahry had been described as ‘a feisty, determined woman who was never boring, and was a very, very good mother.’
She said: ‘It would appear that around this time she had been stressed and concerned selling her flat, because her daughter was leaving home, and because her daughter herself had been low in mood.
‘Drawing all of this information together, there is obviously only one verdict for me to consider in this case, and that verdict is suicide.’
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