‘Brilliant’ scholar who worked for the World Health Organisation killed herself after her estranged Danish husband ‘abducted’ their child
The child prodigy, who suffered from bi-polar, was distraught when authorities in Denmark favoured her husband
A "BRILLIANT" scholar threw herself to her death from an eighth floor balcony when she was prevented from seeing her baby daughter, an inquest heard today.
Child prodigy Felicity Frederiksen killed herself in Denmark after trying desperately to obtain permission to see her daughter, Emilie, against husband Henrik's wishes.
The World Health Organisation employee, who was educated at Oxford University, left suicide notes to her family before her death on July 9.
Felicity, from Hertfordshire, wrote how desperately she wanted to see Emilie - but Danish authorities had blocked this access giving Henrik automatic rights under the country's laws.
The 33-year-old suffered from bi-polar but had been described as happy until the breakdown of her marriage with Henrik.
Senior coroner for Hertfordshire Geoffrey Sullivan told the inquest that Mr Frederiksen had threatened Felicity with legal action to declare her an "incompetent mother" denying her access.
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The coroner read an email from Felicity's father, Oliver Bulmer, which said: "He had effectively abducted their daughter and coerced her to give up rights to Emilie.
"Felicity was exceptionally brilliant and talented and went up to Oxford at the age of 17 where she was a scholar."
In a post on Facebook less than a month before her death, Felicity wrote about not being able to see her daughter and mentioned her "8th floor balcony".
She said: "Please come and visit me in Copenhagen this summer as I am so lonely.
"My darling daughter, who has been taken from me, and who I barely get to see, had a bedroom in the flat all ready for her when she is a baby.
"Please help me from wanting to jump off my 8th floor balcony."
A day before this message Felicity described hoping to stay in Denmark after her job finishes not end up forced out of "the country my baby daughter is forced to stay living in".
Felicity met her husband through the dating app Tinder when studying in Denmark as part of her sociology PhD at the University of Edinburgh.
He proposed via Skype and she was four months pregnant with Emilie when they married in Malaysia in July 16 2015.
The inquest in Hatfield, Hertforshire, near to where her family lives, heard that Felicity had suffered from mental health problems since she was a teenager.
She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and with being anorexic in her 20s.
She criticised the Danish social services for not granting her rights to see Emilie after she moved to her flat in CF Moller Alle in Copenhagen.
She kept in close contact with her psychiatrist Dr Mike McPhillips, who told the hearing: "She had extremely poor self esteem, she was extremely passive and submissive in her close relationships.
"She was in isolation in Denmark and having her daughter taken from her, Felicity was clearly a very vulnerable person and in increased risk of suicide.
"I am sorry to note that her marriage was a very unhappy one, the main consolation in it was the birth of her daughter, who she doted on."
The coroner noted a post mortem examination gave the cause of death as spinal injury and concluded Felicity had committed suicide.
He said: "She was diagnosed really from her teens onwards with depression and poor self esteem.
"It seems she was in regular contact with her psychiatrist and a very supportive family, who she spoke to regularly also but that in the period leading up to her death her marriage was breaking down and her husband, a Danish national, had taken their daughter to Denmark and was refusing access to her.
"This exacerbated her existing mental health problems, it would seem leading her to fall from the balcony on her apartment building in Denmark."
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