TRAGIC West Chiltington couple Susan and Roger Goswell were badly let down by the system, their relatives have told an inquest.
Mr Goswell, 66, was found badly injured in a wrecked Smart car in Monkmead Lane, West Chiltington, late at night on December 23, last year.
An inquest, opened in Chichester today (Tuesday, October 14), heard that he died at Worthing Hospital shortly after midnight.
DI Adam Hibbert told the inquest that when police went to the family home in nearby Silverwood, they found Mrs Goswell, 63, dead in the living room. She had been stabbed and hit with a blunt object.
Psychiatric problemsMr Goswell had a history of psychiatric problems, and the inquest was told that he had made threats to kill his wife.
He was sectioned in November, 2007, after trying to take his own life.
DI Hibbert said Mrs Goswell had a previous relationship with a man from Worthing, and this had been preying on Mr Goswell's mind.
Mr Goswell's sister, Marie King, gave evidence, saying that Mrs Goswell had taken the threats to kill her very seriously, and had often discussed the matter with her.
More to help"I just felt they were both let down," she said, adding that she felt health professionals could have done more to help her brother, and police could have done more to protect Mrs Goswell.
Joseph Goswell, youngest of the Goswells' three children, said he believed his mother was going to leave his father, but had wanted to get Christmas out of the way first.
"She loved Christmas," he said.
"The sad thing was, going to the house, that there wasn't a Christmas decoration up anywhere."
Lifelong tragedyHis sister, Rebecca Merrick, said: "More should have been done for somebody as desperate as my father, and for my mother."
Sarah Bevan, the oldest of their children, said: "We knew that he wasn't himself, and I was terribly fearful."
She added: "I feel that there was a tragedy which is life-long for us and our children and, potentially, people in the right places could have given them more care and, through taking these things more seriously, they might still be here today."
The hearing is due to resumes on Friday (October 17).
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