Elderly couple carried out suicide pact because they wanted to avoid being put in a care home
Retired Royal Navy Commander David Brittain, 86, and wife Bridget, 84, killed themselves after years of openly talking about suicide
A COUPLE who were together for 65 years carried out a suicide pact because they were afraid of being put into a care home and separated.
Retired Royal Navy Commander David Brittain, 86, and wife Bridget, 84, killed themselves in November last year after years of openly talking about suicide.
Months earlier the couple from Yelverton, Devon, joined Exit International, a pro-assisted dying group that helps people plan suicides.
Their family told an inquest into their deaths that they didn't want to live without each other.
"Father hated it if mother went away for a night.
"They wanted to be together."
They continued: "They did not want to be apart, not live without each other."
Bridget Brittain, known as Biddy, used a 'suicide bag' to kill herself before her husband did the same.
Their cleaner found their bodies in the kitchen of their £750,000 home.
Father hated it if mother went away for a night. They wanted to be together
While it is not known what exactly triggered couple's decision, the inquest heard that David could have fallen over and his wife may not have been able to pick him up.
At that point they may decided "this is it", daughter Susan suggested.
She told the inquest on Friday that their breakfast had only been "half laid out" on the dining table when they were found, leading her to think the decision to commit suicide there and then was a sudden one.
However, the coroner said they had put out "cushions to make themselves comfortable".
David had a fall while attending a ballet performance two weeks earlier, the inquest heard.
Also, their dog Tink had to be put down the week before their deaths.
Police found documents relating to Exit International as well as instructions on how to commit suicide in their home.
A spokesperson for Exit said: "We provide information to people who want to plan how to take their own lives peacefully.
“We provide information on the basis that without it people can’t make an informed decision.
“We don’t provide the tools or equipment because technically that would be illegal."
They did not want to be apart, not live without each other
Coroner John Tomalin heard that two weeks before the suicide Bridget received some “bad news healthwise but did not elaborate further”.
He said they committed suicide, saying they were both "willing participants".
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