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| Tammy Paterson (left), 24, was torn between husband Ian Paterson, 28, and John Lewis (right), 36, the tutor she fell for after enrolling at Deeside College in Flintshire, North Wales |
When she discovered she was pregnant the student killed herself after sending the same text to both her estranged husband and lover, which simply said: ‘I am going to die, sorry.’
Mrs Paterson, who had just qualified as a special constable, was found hanged in her police issue trousers, blouse and hat in a bedroom at her home.
At an inquest into her death, coroner John Gittins said it was a tragic waste of a young life and described her suicide as a ‘very, very sad case’.
The hearing was told Lithuanian-born Tatjana Vitaite – known as Tammy – had moved to the UK some years ago and began working in a factory in North Wales.
She met fellow worker Ian Paterson at the factory and romance blossomed between them. They married in 2009 and had a daughter. In September 2011 Mrs Paterson started a public service course at Deeside College, North Wales, and also began training as a special constable.
Mr Paterson, 28, of Sandycroft, North Wales told the inquest he and his wife split up in May last year though they tried for a reconciliation before finally separating.
‘She said we should have a break from each other,’ he explained. But he added the reconciliation did not work out and he finally moved out of their home for good.
Mr Lewis told the inquest: ‘I was aware she was married with a child. She confided in me about her problems. She felt she could trust me. I was aware that she was having problems in her marriage.
‘I believed she left her husband. She asked me if things were different, would I date her?’ He said he told her he couldn’t because they were teacher and student.
But the inquest at North East Wales Coroner’s Court in Mold heard the pair later started an affair after their ‘relationship changed’.
Mr Lewis told the hearing: ‘Things happened which should not have’ and claimed both of them were extremely vulnerable at the time.
The lecturer said the relationship only grew in the last weeks of her college course and claimed he loved her and he wanted to be with her.
Within weeks of finishing the public services course she told him she was pregnant and claimed she wanted the baby and also wanted to have a future with him.
But she then changed her mind and said she wanted an abortion and intended to continue with her career. Mr Lewis said he supported her in her decision. ‘We were hoping for a future together,’ he said.
Mr Paterson said he was aware of his wife’s relationship with her college lecturer and she told him she was pregnant with Mr Lewis’s child.
On July 5 last year Mrs Paterson went for a medical assessment and was then scheduled to have an abortion the following Monday. But the following day she failed to respond to repeated calls from her lover.
He went to an Asda supermarket where she had been employed part-time to see her but was told she had not arrived for work.
Then at 2.05pm he received the text saying: ‘I am going to die, sorry.’ Frantic with worry, Mr Lewis and his brother rushed round to her house in Connah’s Quay, North Wales where they discovered her body.
Mr Lewis said: ‘I never imagined she would feel that this was the only way of dealing with her emotions.’
Mr Paterson said he also received a text from her saying: ‘I am going to die, sorry’ as well as another in the days before her death which said: ‘I still love you.’
The coroner, who recorded a verdict of suicide, described Mrs Paterson as ‘quite a troubled soul’ and said she had a traumatic childhood in Lithuania, where her stepfather had been murdered.
