The sister of a headteacher who was shot dead by her husband along with their daughter has paid tribute to them, saying they were “people, not just bodies lying in a house of horrors”.
Epsom College head Emma Pattison and seven-year-old daughter Lettie were found dead at their home within the grounds of the private boarding school in Surrey in February last year, alongside George Pattison, their husband and father respectively.
An inquest was told Mrs Pattison, 45, died of shotgun wounds to the chest and abdomen on February 5 2023 while Lettie was shot in the head.
Both were murdered by 39-year-old chartered accountant Mr Pattison before he killed himself.
Speaking outside Surrey Coroner’s Court at the conclusion of the inquest, Deborah Kirk, the sister of Mrs Pattison, said the day they died was “just one” day of their lives out of thousands.
“Today we heard about death, we heard about bodies, guns, about killings, unlawful deaths, about suicide,” she said.
“We heard about what cartridge pellets do to the body of a 45-year-old woman, and to that of a seven-year-old little girl.
“We heard about times, places, scenes, we didn’t hear about why. We will never really know why. But as we listen to this unbelievable account of death and family tragedy, we remember this.
“Emma lived around 16,000 days, Lettie lived nearly 3,000, this was just one of those days. Yes it was their last, and undoubtedly their worst, but it was just one.
“These were people, not just bodies lying in a house of horrors, these were people.”
She said she hoped the death of her sister and niece would lead to “some shift” that would save the lives of other victims of domestic violence.
The inquest heard that Mr Pattison had a firearm licence for the shotgun used in the killings, but medical records showing that he had been prescribed anxiety medication were not available to the police as he used an online doctor.
Senior coroner Richard Travers described this as a “lacuna” in the legislation, and said he would conduct a prevention of future deaths report into the matter.
Earlier on Tuesday, evidence from Ms Kirk was read to the inquest in Woking.
She said she received a phone call from her sister just before 11pm on February 4, telling her that Mr Pattison had hit her and their dog, Bella.
She said her sister told her “I need someone to come over” and that her tone of voice was one of “concern, but not of terror”.
“It was more like she had assessed the situation and did not feel safe,” Ms Kirk said.
She said she and her husband, Mark Miller, got an Uber to her sister’s home just after 11pm.
“I kept trying to call Emma but there was still no answer,” Ms Kirk said.
She added: “By the time we had arrived at Emma’s house I was getting really worried that she was not answering her phone.”
When they arrived at the house, all of the lights were on and the cars were in the driveway.
Her husband went in the house first and then stopped her from going in any further once she entered.
“He said ‘Don’t go in there, don’t go in there, we are going outside’,” she said.
Her husband called an ambulance and paramedics arrived shortly afterwards.
Ms Kirk also read out a tribute to her sister and niece at the inquest.
“Emma was lightness itself,” she said.
Ms Kirk said her sister was “smart” and kind in a way that “fills a room” and “drives change”.
She described her niece, Lettie, as “razor smart, curious, and disarmingly cute”.
Ms Kirk said she would comfort her niece whenever she was sad.
“I would hold her in my arms and say, ‘yes it is hard to be seven, isn’t it monkey?’” she said.
Ms Kirk said she was still trying to forgive Mr Pattison.
“I can only speak for myself when I say that I am trying to forgive you,” she said.
Ms Kirk added: “I can only imagine that you were in an extraordinary hell of your own.”
The inquest heard that Mrs Pattison watched rugby with her friends in the hours before she died.
The last friend left at 7pm and Mrs Pattison then received a Chinese takeaway at 9.36pm.
In evidence read to the court by the coroner, the delivery driver said: “She had a smiley face and seemed OK.”
The inquest heard that a post-mortem examination report found that Mr Pattison’s cause of death was a shotgun wound.
It also found that Mrs Pattison and Lettie’s causes of death were shotgun wounds.
A toxicology report found that Mr Pattison had 243 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, a quantity that is associated with a “high to extreme” level of intoxication.
Concluding the inquest, Mr Travers said that Mr Pattison shot his wife, Emma Pattison, and their daughter, Lettie, without lawful reason at Epsom College at an unknown time between February 4 and 5 2023.
He also concluded that Mr Pattison died by suicide after he shot himself with the same gun.