Epsom College’s headteacher and her seven-year-old daughter were unlawfully killed by her husband during a shotgun rampage before he turned the weapon on himself, a coroner has ruled.
Emma Pattison and daughter Lettie, seven, were found dead at their home within the grounds of the exclusive £42,000-a-year boarding school in Surrey in February last year, alongside the body of George Pattison.
An inquest was previously told Mrs Pattison, 45, died of shotgun wounds to the chest and abdomen on February 5 2023, while little Lettie was shot in the head.
Both are believed to have been murdered by 39-year-old chartered accountant Mr Pattison, before he killed himself with the double-barrelled firearm.
Richard Travers, Senior Coroner for Surrey, today concluded that Emma and Lettie were unlawfully killed, having been shot by Pattison. He also concluded that Pattison died by suicide and intended the act.
Lettie, seven, and her mother Emma Pattison, 45, were both found dead on February 5 2023 at their home in the grounds of exclusive Epsom College boarding school in Surrey, where Mrs Pattison was head teacher
Emma and Lettie are believed to have been murdered by George Pattison, pictured with them, before he took his own life on February 5
Pictured is where the family were found dead on the grounds of the exclusive £42,000-a-year Surrey boarding school
The news came as the court heard how a worried Mrs Pattinson had told her sister her killed husband had hit her hours before he slaughter the respected educator and her daughter.
Evidence from Deborah Kirk, the sister of Mrs Pattison, was read to the inquest at Surrey Coroner’s Court in Woking on Tuesday.
She said she received a phone call from her sister just before 11pm on February 4, telling her that her husband had hit her and their dog, Bella.
She said her sister told her: ‘I need someone to come over.’
Her sister’s 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,’ she 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,’ she 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 entered the house ahead of her, and then stopped her from coming in any further once she entered.
‘He said don’t go in there, don’t go in there, we are going outside,’ she said.
Following their deaths, heartbroken family said they believed Emma and Lettie would remain as inseparable in death as they were in life
The family described Lettie, pictured, as ‘Emma’s pride and joy – an adorable, vibrant little girl with a compelling curiosity, a heart-melting smile and an intellect beyond her years’
Mr Pattison only moved into the grace-and-favour home at the school, pictured, three weeks before the murder-suicide, it was previously reported (pictured is Epsom College)
Her husband called an ambulance, and paramedics arrived on the scene shortly afterwards.
Ms Kirk also read out a tribute to her sister and niece at the inquest.
‘Emma was lightness itself,’ she said.
She 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.’
She 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.
She 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.
Emma and her daughter were found dead at their home in the grounds of Epsom College in Surrey after a distressed Mrs Pattison, 45, called her sister
The last friend left at 7pm, and Mrs Pattison then received a Chinese takeaway at 9.36pm.
In evidence read out to the court by the coroner, the delivery driver said: ‘She had a smiley face and seemed okay.’
The inquest heard that a post-mortem 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 George had 243 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, a quantity that is associated with a ‘high to extreme’ level of intoxication.
A statement released by Mrs Pattison and Lettie’s family after their deaths said: ‘To see the esteem in which Emma is held by all who knew her is an enormous comfort.
‘She was everything one could hope for in a daughter, sister, mother, wife, friend, teacher and so much more.
‘We are an extremely close family and family was at the centre of Emma and Lettie’s universe.
‘The Epsom College community had become part of that universe for them both.
‘Seven-year-old Lettie was Emma’s pride and joy – an adorable, vibrant little girl with a compelling curiosity, a heart-melting smile and an intellect beyond her years.
‘The two of them were inseparable and we take comfort in that they will remain so.’
