Former Coventry car worker strangled wife and hanged himself

[dutchman]

A former Coventry car worker strangled his wife before hanging himself after she began an affair with a teenager, an inquest has heard.



The two young sons of Barry Harrison, 47, and his wife Amanda, 34, were thought to have being left alone with their dead bodies for up to 48 hours.

When found, three-year-old Owen and five-year-old Aiden had said “mummy and daddy are sleeping”, the hearing at Newport Coroner’s Court heard.

Mr Harrison had worked as an electrician at Peugeot in Ryton before losing his job when the factory closed.

The couple, who met while working at the car plant, moved to the Isle of Wight after their home in Downing Crescent, Bedworth, was repossessed.

Mrs Harrison, 34, suffered neck injuries and is believed to have been strangled with a piece of washing line found by her body. Mr Harrison was found hanging.

Det Con Stephen Legg, one of the first officers on the scene, said: “The children said they couldn’t wake Mum and Dad up. They said Mum was lying down and Dad was asleep standing up.”

He added that Aiden had demonstrated how his father had put his hand over his mother’s face.

Maureen Cannon, who had known the couple from when she lived in Bedworth but had lived on the island since 2003, said Mrs Harrison told her she had started an affair with a 19-year-old customer at her shop, called Alex Harmer-Wood.

She said: “Amanda surprised me, she told me she was having an affair. She had a tattoo AH and she was happy those were his initials as well as her own.

“She had been seeing him for two weeks. She felt he lifted her up.”

The inquest heard that in the weeks before their deaths on August 9 last year, the couple had been experiencing marital problems and had decided to spend three weeks apart.

Mrs Harrison and the children had gone to stay with Maureen Cannon and Mr Harrison had gone to visit his family in Coventry.

During his absence, Mrs Harrison had allowed Mr Harmer-Wood to stay in their flat in Shanklin with his girlfriend.

Mr Harrison returned early from Coventry and found the couple asleep in his bed, the inquest heard.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE OF THIS STORY